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Rents and vacancy in Barrie's apartment buildings, 1990–2025

Every October, CMHC asks the owners of Barrie's purpose-built rental apartments what their tenants pay and which units stand empty. In 2025 the average two-bedroom in the city rented for $1,755, 26% more than five years earlier, and 4.4% of units were vacant, the highest in a series that begins in 1990. These figures are for the City of Barrie; the survey covers apartment buildings only, not rented houses, basement units or social housing.

What does an apartment rent for?

Average monthly rent, purpose-built apartments, City of Barrie, October 1990–2025

1-bedroom 2-bedroom 3-bedroom or more

$0 $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 $2,000
CMHC Rental Market Survey, City of Barrie (census subdivision 3543042), privately initiated apartment buildings of three or more rental units.
Averages across occupied and vacant units, in the dollars of each year (not adjusted for inflation), not asking rents.
How this is counted
CMHC's Rental Market Survey, taken in the first two weeks of each October: privately initiated apartment buildings with three or more rental units, on the market at least three months. Social and affordable housing is not in it, and neither are rented houses, basement apartments or anything else outside such buildings. Rent is what the tenant actually pays, with or without heat, hydro or parking. The average is weighted across every unit, occupied and vacant, so it is what tenants are paying, not the asking rent for a unit on the market today. CMHC grades each estimate (a excellent, b very good, c good, d poor: use with caution) and does not publish one too unreliable or confidential to release; an unpublished figure is a gap here, never a zero. This is CMHC (Rental Market Survey)’s definition.
Source: CMHC Housing Market Information Portal — Rental Market Survey, Barrie CMA and City of Barrie, October 1990–2025, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Original document. Average and median rents, vacancy rates and the surveyed universe of purpose-built apartments, by bedroom type, every October from 1990 to 2025, for the Barrie CMA (which includes Innisfil and Springwater) and for the City of Barrie on its own; October 2025 also by CMHC neighbourhood. Average rents are across occupied and vacant units, not asking rents. Retrieved October 15, 2026.

The average one-bedroom rose from $517 in 1990 to $1,586 in 2025, and the two-bedroom from $625 to $1,755. The median rent of all apartments, the middle unit rather than the average, was $1,700 in 2025, against an average of $1,692.

How many apartments are empty?

Apartment vacancy rate, City of Barrie, October 1990–2025

All apartments 2-bedroom

0% 2% 4% 6% 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 6%
Share of purpose-built apartments physically unoccupied and available for immediate rental during the October survey.
CMHC grades several of these estimates "use with caution"; a year with no published rate is a gap in the line.
How this is counted
CMHC's Rental Market Survey, taken in the first two weeks of each October: privately initiated apartment buildings with three or more rental units, on the market at least three months. Social and affordable housing is not in it, and neither are rented houses, basement apartments or anything else outside such buildings. Rent is what the tenant actually pays, with or without heat, hydro or parking. A unit is vacant if, at the time of the survey, it is physically unoccupied and available for immediate rental: no new lease signed and no major renovation under way. CMHC grades each estimate (a excellent, b very good, c good, d poor: use with caution) and does not publish one too unreliable or confidential to release; an unpublished figure is a gap here, never a zero. This is CMHC (Rental Market Survey)’s definition.
Source: CMHC Housing Market Information Portal — Rental Market Survey, Barrie CMA and City of Barrie, October 1990–2025, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Original document. Average and median rents, vacancy rates and the surveyed universe of purpose-built apartments, by bedroom type, every October from 1990 to 2025, for the Barrie CMA (which includes Innisfil and Springwater) and for the City of Barrie on its own; October 2025 also by CMHC neighbourhood. Average rents are across occupied and vacant units, not asking rents. Retrieved October 15, 2026.

How many purpose-built apartments are there?

Purpose-built rental apartments, City of Barrie, October 1990–2025

Apartments in the survey universe

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 6,000
CMHC's count of units in privately initiated rental apartment buildings of three or more units (its "universe").
Not a count of every rented home: rented houses and basement units are outside it.
How this is counted
CMHC's Rental Market Survey, taken in the first two weeks of each October: privately initiated apartment buildings with three or more rental units, on the market at least three months. Social and affordable housing is not in it, and neither are rented houses, basement apartments or anything else outside such buildings. Rent is what the tenant actually pays, with or without heat, hydro or parking. The universe is CMHC's count of the units in that stock, the base the rents and rates are drawn from; it is not a count of every rented home in the city. This is CMHC (Rental Market Survey)’s definition.
Source: CMHC Housing Market Information Portal — Rental Market Survey, Barrie CMA and City of Barrie, October 1990–2025, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Original document. Average and median rents, vacancy rates and the surveyed universe of purpose-built apartments, by bedroom type, every October from 1990 to 2025, for the Barrie CMA (which includes Innisfil and Springwater) and for the City of Barrie on its own; October 2025 also by CMHC neighbourhood. Average rents are across occupied and vacant units, not asking rents. Retrieved October 15, 2026.

The stock barely moved for a quarter-century: 3,208 apartments in 1990, 3,271 in 2010, 3,758 in 2020 and 4,083 in 2025. Every figure on this page describes those buildings.

Where in the city?

Average apartment rent by CMHC neighbourhood, City of Barrie, October 2025

North Barrie $1,940 West End $1,708 South Barrie $1,704 East End $1,683 Downtown $1,557
North Barrie $1,940 West End $1,708 South Barrie $1,704 East End $1,683 Downtown $1,557
All bedroom types together.
These are CMHC's five neighbourhoods for Barrie, not wards; together they hold exactly the city's surveyed apartments. Each bar's tooltip carries the neighbourhood's apartment count and vacancy rate.
How this is counted
CMHC's Rental Market Survey, taken in the first two weeks of each October: privately initiated apartment buildings with three or more rental units, on the market at least three months. Social and affordable housing is not in it, and neither are rented houses, basement apartments or anything else outside such buildings. Rent is what the tenant actually pays, with or without heat, hydro or parking. CMHC's own five Barrie neighbourhoods (Downtown, East End, North Barrie, South Barrie, West End), which are not wards; together they hold exactly the city's surveyed apartments. All bedroom types together. CMHC grades each estimate (a excellent, b very good, c good, d poor: use with caution) and does not publish one too unreliable or confidential to release; an unpublished figure is a gap here, never a zero. This is CMHC (Rental Market Survey)’s definition.
Source: CMHC Housing Market Information Portal — Rental Market Survey, Barrie CMA and City of Barrie, October 1990–2025, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Original document. Average and median rents, vacancy rates and the surveyed universe of purpose-built apartments, by bedroom type, every October from 1990 to 2025, for the Barrie CMA (which includes Innisfil and Springwater) and for the City of Barrie on its own; October 2025 also by CMHC neighbourhood. Average rents are across occupied and vacant units, not asking rents. Retrieved October 15, 2026.

City or CMA?

CMHC publishes the Barrie census metropolitan area (the city with Innisfil and Springwater) as its headline geography, and other pages on this site, including housing, quote the CMA. For rental apartments the difference is almost nil: in October 2025 the CMA had 4,097 surveyed apartments and the city 4,083 of them. City and CMA average rents have never been more than $5 apart in any bedroom type since 1990, and vacancy rates never more than 0.1 percentage points.

Sources: CMHC Housing Market Information Portal — Rental Market Survey, Barrie CMA and City of Barrie, October 1990–2025, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Original document. Average and median rents, vacancy rates and the surveyed universe of purpose-built apartments, by bedroom type, every October from 1990 to 2025, for the Barrie CMA (which includes Innisfil and Springwater) and for the City of Barrie on its own; October 2025 also by CMHC neighbourhood. Average rents are across occupied and vacant units, not asking rents. Methodology for Rental Market Survey, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, dated January 29, 2024. Original document. What the survey covers (privately initiated buildings with three or more rental units; not social or affordable housing), and its definitions of universe, vacancy, average rent and rent. All retrieved October 15, 2026.

Common questions

What is the average rent in Barrie?

In CMHC's October 2025 survey of purpose-built apartments in the City of Barrie, the average was $1,586 for a one-bedroom and $1,755 for a two-bedroom. Those are what tenants in those buildings pay, occupied and vacant units together, not the asking rent for a unit on the market.

What is Barrie's rental vacancy rate?

4.4% of purpose-built apartments in the city were vacant in October 2025, up from 1.6% in 2021.

Are these figures for the city or the CMA?

This page charts the City of Barrie. CMHC also reports the Barrie census metropolitan area, which adds Innisfil and Springwater, but almost every surveyed apartment is in the city (4,083 of 4,097 in 2025), so the two sets of figures are within a few dollars of each other.

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