Side-by-side comparison

New Brunswick vs Victoria: which is better for Airbnb investment?

We compare the Canada short-term rental markets across occupancy, daily rate, RevPAR, year-over-year trend, and regulation.

Bottom line

Victoria edges ahead of New Brunswick on higher occupancy (48% vs 42%), stronger RevPAR (£36 vs £18).

Head-to-head metrics

 New BrunswickVictoria
Median occupancy42%48%
Median daily rate£87£93
Median RevPAR£18£36
Active listings3,3902,586
YoY occupancy+22.3 pts+13.5 pts
YoY daily rate+0%+0.6%
Regulation risk
Annual night capNoneNone
License requiredNoNo

Full analysis: New Brunswick vs Victoria

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Victoria finishes clearly ahead of New Brunswick. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 105.5% higher in Victoria: £36 against £18. Victoria's listings run at 48% occupancy against 42% in New Brunswick, worth 6 extra points of booked calendar every year. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

Victoria takes both halves of the yield equation, which is less common than it sounds. It charges more per night — £93 against £87 — and still fills more of the year, 48% against 42%. A market that leads on price and utilisation at once is normally one where demand has outrun supply, rather than one where hosts are discounting to keep the calendar busy. RevPAR reflects the double advantage at £36 against £18.

That verdict needs a caveat, because New Brunswick is not simply the weaker market of the two. The twelve-month direction favours New Brunswick too: occupancy there moved +22.3 points while Victoria moved +13.5 points. New Brunswick's calendar is the flatter of the two — 11.9 points between its best and worst month against 17 in Victoria — which makes debt service easier to underwrite. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

Neither New Brunswick nor Victoria currently has a verified short-term rental regulation record in our register, so the comparison above is a yield comparison only. Regulation is the single largest source of downside in this asset class — an unverified market is an unpriced risk, not an absent one.

The two calendars also behave differently. New Brunswick peaks in July at 51.1% and bottoms in June at 39.2%; Victoria runs from 56.6% in October down to 39.6% in May. New Brunswick is the steadier of the two at 11.9 points peak-to-trough against 17 — easier to underwrite against a mortgage — while Victoria concentrates its return into a shorter window and rewards operators who price the peak aggressively instead of holding a flat rate all year.

Who each suits, then. New Brunswick suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry. It is also the momentum side of this pair. Victoria answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2025-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 2,122 active New Brunswick listings and 866 in Victoria.

Frequently asked questions

Is New Brunswick or Victoria better for Airbnb investment?
Victoria, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£36 vs £18), higher occupancy (48% vs 42%), and higher median annual revenue (£13,311 vs £6,473). New Brunswick is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on the better occupancy trend (+22.3 points vs +13.5 points year over year).
Which has higher occupancy, New Brunswick or Victoria?
Victoria, at 48% median occupancy against 42% in New Brunswick — a gap of 6 points. That is a real but modest edge; a well-run listing in New Brunswick can close most of it. Over the last twelve months New Brunswick gained 22.3 points and Victoria gained 13.5 points, so the gap is closing.
Which has higher nightly rates, New Brunswick or Victoria?
Victoria, at £93 a night against £87 in New Brunswick — roughly 6.7% more. Revenue per available night agrees rather than contradicts: £36 in Victoria against £18, so the rate premium survives contact with the occupancy figures.
Which has stronger year-over-year growth, New Brunswick or Victoria?
New Brunswick, on occupancy: +22.3 points over the last twelve months against +13.5 points in Victoria. Nightly rates held flat in New Brunswick and rose 0.6% in Victoria over the same window. One year of movement is a direction, not a trend — weigh it against the regulation picture before treating it as momentum.
Which is the bigger Airbnb market, New Brunswick or Victoria?
New Brunswick, with 3,390 active listings against 2,586 in Victoria. Size cuts both ways: a deep market gives you comparables, contractors and an exit, while a thinner one means fewer near-identical rivals competing for the same search results.
How much can you earn from an Airbnb in New Brunswick vs Victoria?
Victoria earns more: roughly £13,311 a year for a median listing against £6,473 in New Brunswick. Those are gross booking revenues before cleaning, management, platform fees, furnishing amortisation and tax — budget for a meaningful share of them, and note that a median listing is a median operator, not a good one.

Go deeper on each city

Market guide
Airbnb in New Brunswick
Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation
Market guide
Airbnb in Victoria
Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation
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