Ottawa vs Victoria: which is better for Airbnb investment? (2026)

Bottom line

Victoria edges ahead of Ottawa on higher occupancy (39.5% vs 34.5%), stronger RevPAR (£51 vs £29).

Head-to-head metrics

	Ottawa	Victoria
Median occupancy	34.5%	39.5%
Median daily rate	£78	£144
Median RevPAR	£29	£51
Active listings	1,796	2,666
YoY occupancy	+0 pts	-3.2 pts
YoY daily rate	+22.5%	+55.6%
Regulation risk	—	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Ottawa 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 Ottawa. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 74.2% higher in Victoria: £51 against £29. Victoria commands 84.8% more per night, £144 against £78. 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 — £144 against £78 — and still fills more of the year, 39.5% against 34.5%. 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 £51 against £29.

That verdict needs a caveat, because Ottawa is not simply the weaker market of the two. The twelve-month direction favours Ottawa too: occupancy there moved +0 points while Victoria moved −3.2 points. Ottawa is the less crowded of the two — 1,796 active listings to 2,666 — so a well-run property has fewer near-identical rivals to out-rank. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

Neither Ottawa 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. Ottawa peaks in September at 53% and bottoms in February at 27.4%; Victoria runs from 56.1% in October down to 40% in December. Victoria is the steadier of the two at 16.1 points peak-to-trough against 25.6 — easier to underwrite against a mortgage — while Ottawa 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. Ottawa suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry. Victoria answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal. It is the contrarian side: buying it means buying a market that has cooled. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2026-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 1,796 active Ottawa listings and 2,666 in Victoria.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ottawa or Victoria better for Airbnb investment?

Victoria, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£51 vs £29), a higher nightly rate (£144 vs £78), and faster rate growth (+55.6% vs +22.5% year over year). Ottawa is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on the better occupancy trend (+0 points vs −3.2 points year over year).

Which has higher occupancy, Ottawa or Victoria?

Victoria, at 39.5% median occupancy against 34.5% in Ottawa — a gap of 5 points. That is a real but modest edge; a well-run listing in Ottawa can close most of it. Over the last twelve months Ottawa was flat and Victoria shed 3.2 points, so the gap is closing.

Which has higher nightly rates, Ottawa or Victoria?

Victoria, at £144 a night against £78 in Ottawa — roughly 84.8% more. Revenue per available night agrees rather than contradicts: £51 in Victoria against £29, so the rate premium survives contact with the occupancy figures.

Which has stronger year-over-year growth, Ottawa or Victoria?

Ottawa, on occupancy: +0 points over the last twelve months against −3.2 points in Victoria. Nightly rates rose 22.5% in Ottawa and rose 55.6% 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, Ottawa or Victoria?

Victoria, with 2,666 active listings against 1,796 in Ottawa. 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 Ottawa vs Victoria?

Victoria earns more: roughly £18,540 a year for a median listing against £10,656 in Ottawa. 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 Ottawa →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in Victoria →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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