Areas
Renting in Kitsilano, Where You Pay a High Rent for an Old Building
Updated August 13, 2026 · 4 min read
Kitsilano is one of the most expensive places to rent in Vancouver and one of the least equipped. Both of those are measurable, they come from the same cause, and if you are weighing a Kitsilano flat against somewhere else they are the trade you are actually making.
What it costs
| Size | Homes we are tracking | Median asking rent |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 19 | $2,250 |
| 1 bedroom | 136 | $2,378 |
| 2 bedroom | 99 | $3,200 |
| 3 bedroom | 39 | $3,850 |
Against the rest of the city
| Area | Median 1-bed asking rent |
|---|---|
| Downtown Vancouver | $2,700 |
| Mount Pleasant | $2,400 |
| Kitsilano | $2,378 |
| West End | $2,262 |
| Vancouver overall | $2,100 |
| East Vancouver | $1,850 |
A one-bedroom here asks $278 a month more than the Vancouver median and $528 more than East Vancouver. The West End is the closest comparison in age and price, and it is dearer per square foot than Kitsilano is. Only downtown and Mount Pleasant ask more, and Mount Pleasant only by $22.
What that rent does not include
This is the part worth putting in a table, because it is where Kitsilano differs from everywhere else at the price.
| Area | In-suite laundry | Parking included | Air conditioning |
|---|---|---|---|
| West End | 31% | 73% | 5.1% |
| Kitsilano | 48% | 46% | 2.9% |
| Mount Pleasant | 53% | 76% | 7.8% |
| East Vancouver | 54% | 43% | 4.7% |
| Vancouver overall | 66% | 61% | 8.5% |
| Richmond | 71% | 77% | 9.3% |
| Coquitlam | 80% | 72% | 5.5% |
The laundry and parking figures are shares of the homes that state anything at all: 114 of the 315 for each. The air conditioning figure is a share of all 315, because almost no advertisement says a flat lacks it, so silence there is genuinely uninformative.
Kitsilano is second lowest on in-suite laundry and second lowest on parking, and it has the least air conditioning of any area we measure at 2.9%. Nine homes out of 315. A newer building in Coquitlam or Richmond asks less rent and comes with more of all three.
Still looking for the place itself? Describe what you want once and we email you when a matching rental is listed, usually within a few hours of it going up.
Get told when it appearsWhy the buildings are like that
The neighbourhood resisted tower development for decades, so almost nothing in Kitsilano is above four storeys. What that leaves is three- and four-storey walk-ups from the 1960s and 1970s, character houses divided into suites, and a small number of newer low-rise buildings along Broadway.
A walk-up has no lift. On a fourth floor that is a daily fact and on moving day it is a significant one. Buildings of that age and height were also not built with a parking stall for every unit, which is why the parking figure is what it is, and much of the neighbourhood's street parking is permit-controlled.
None of this makes Kitsilano a bad place to live, and the reasons people pay for it are not in this data: the beach, the shops on 4th and Broadway, and a fifteen-minute ride to downtown. It does mean the rent is buying the location rather than the building, and it is worth going in knowing which.
Per square foot
| Size | Median floor area | Asking rent per sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 500 sq ft | $4.56 |
| 1 bedroom | 618 sq ft | $3.92 |
| 2 bedroom | 851 sq ft | $3.87 |
| 3 bedroom | 1,150 sq ft | $3.82 |
254 of the 315 homes here state a floor area. The striking row is the studio: at $4.56 per square foot it costs more per foot than a downtown one-bedroom at $4.45. Small units carry the premium in Kitsilano, which is the opposite of the pattern in the suburbs, where the price per foot falls steadily with size and the three-bedroom is the bargain.
Mostly flats, some divided houses
Of the 108 Kitsilano homes that state a housing type, 84 are apartment-form and 24 are house-form. The house-form share is mostly character houses split into suites rather than whole houses to let, which is what the streets south of 4th are made of.
Whatever the building, the Residential Tenancy Act covers it, including the rent increase cap and the deposit limits. Older buildings are where repair and maintenance obligations come up most often, and those do not relax because a building is old or because the rent is high.
What this page cannot tell you
Kitsilano and Point Grey are one area in our data and two places on the ground, and we do not publish separate figures for them. The neighbourhood field on the advertisements is free text a landlord typed, too inconsistent to split.
207 of the 315 homes here say nothing about housing type, so the split above describes the 108 that did.
Building age is not in this data. The claim that the stock is old rests on what the listings say about laundry, parking and cooling, which is indirect evidence rather than a survey of construction dates.
The studio row rests on 19 advertisements, so read it as indicative.
The figures are asking rents from advertisements, not agreed rents. Nobody publishes what tenancies are actually signed at.
How we collect and group these listings sets out where the underlying numbers come from and what they leave out.
Common questions
How much is rent in Kitsilano?
On the listings we are tracking the median asking rent in Kitsilano is $2,378 for a one-bedroom and $3,200 for a two-bedroom. That is the second-highest one-bedroom inside Vancouver after downtown at $2,700, and just under Mount Pleasant at $2,400. The Zumper rent research we publish on the area page, retrieved 9 August 2026, puts a Kitsilano one-bedroom at $2,599.
Do Kitsilano apartments have in-suite laundry?
Often not. Of the 114 homes that say anything about laundry, 55 say it is in the unit and 59 say it is in the building. A 48% in-suite share is the second lowest of any area we measure, behind the West End at 31%, and it follows directly from the age of the buildings.
Is parking included in Kitsilano rentals?
Less often than almost anywhere. Of the 114 homes that mention parking, 53 say it is included and 54 say street parking. A 46% share is the second lowest we measure, behind East Vancouver at 43%. Four-storey walk-ups from the 1960s and 1970s were not built with a stall for every unit, and Kitsilano's street parking is permit-controlled in much of the neighbourhood.
Why are Kitsilano buildings so low?
The neighbourhood resisted tower development, so almost nothing here is above four storeys. The stock is three- and four-storey walk-ups, character houses divided into suites, and a small number of newer low-rise buildings along Broadway. A walk-up means no lift, which matters on a fourth floor and matters more on moving day.
Is Kitsilano cheaper than downtown?
On the headline rent, yes: $2,378 against $2,700 for a one-bedroom. Per square foot the gap narrows to $3.92 against $4.45, and a Kitsilano studio asks $4.56 per square foot, which is more per foot than a downtown one-bedroom. The small units carry the premium here.