Every year, the B.C. Residential Tenancy Branch sets the maximum allowable percentage by which landlords are legally permitted to increase rents.

Because there is an acute housing shortage in Vancouver, it means that that percentage is the exact amount by which most landlords do raise rents.

Yesterday (August 23), the Residential Tenancy Branch revealed this number for the year ahead, and it’s a big one.

In 2018, landlords are permitted to increase rents in B.C. by four percent.

That’s a five-year high. It’s up from 3.7 percent in 2017, 2.9 percent in 2016, 2.5 percent in 2015, and 2.2 percent in 2014.

This means that if you live in downtown Vancouver and pay $1,300 for a studio apartment, next year, you’re likely going to pay $1,352 a month, or an annual increase of $624.

If you live in Strathcona and rent a one-bedroom basement suite for $1,650 a month, in 2018, you could be paying $ 1,716, or $792 more a year.

If you live in Kitsilano and pay $2,400 for a two-bedroom, next year, your rent is probably going to increase to $2,496, or $1,152 more a year.

And so on.

The last time that landlords were permitted to increase rents by more than four percent was in 2012, when the number was 4.3 percent. Before that, it was in 2007, when it was four percent.