Price to rent a Toronto apartment up by $300+ in last six months

Rental rates for Toronto apartments have skyrocketed over the last six months. With a housing market that's smashed records over the past year, it's little surprise that the cost to rent is also ballooning at an alarming rate.

According to data collected by apartment listings site PadMapper, the median cost of a one bedroom apartment in Toronto has gone up almost 24 per cent over the last six months, climbing from $1,310 in September 2016 to $1,620 this February.

For two bedroom apartments, the median price was $1,680 last September, while it's now $2,060. This represents an all-time high according to the company's statistics.

There are a variety at factors driving prices up, not the least of which is low availability and high demand (which is precisely what's fuelling the dramatic increases in houses prices around the GTA as well).

"While the rental vacancy for Canada is around 3.4 per cent, the vacancy rate in Toronto is at a low 1.3 per cent, explains Crystal Chen from PadMapper.

"With job opportunity and amenities that make the city extremely attractive to millennials, Toronto is highly desirable and the demand for housing here is outweighing the current supply."

There might be some minor relief in sight as developers invest in rental properties more than we've seen in recent memory, but don't expect rental rates to start dropping while house prices continue to climb.