Rents in Toronto continue to plummet for the tenth month in a row

Living in a city as expensive as Toronto can be a struggle, to say the least, and the global health crisis and ensuing recession sure haven't made things any easier for residents trying to get by.

If you're a prospective homeowner in T.O., you're unfortunately still very much out of luck as far as housing prices, which have been completely unassuaged by the pandemic — but, if you're a renter, things have actually been looking up.

Based on the most recent national data from Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting, rents in the city have continued to fall each month, with October's numbers showing that two-bedroom apartments are a whopping 14 per cent cheaper than they were at the same time last year.

One-bedroom tenants are faring even better, with rents now down 17 per cent year-over-year, and declining month-over-month since the beginning of the year.

Rents across the country were, on average, down only 8.1 per cent for all housing types, to give an idea of just how fast and drastically Toronto's pricing is falling.

Chart from the latest National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Bullpen.

According to this latest report, it is now officially more expensive to rent in North York than it is in the rest of the city, and the two top the list of the most expensive places to rent a one-bedroom unit specifically in the entire country, preceding even Vancouver.

But when looking at rent prices overall for all types of units, Oakville and Vancouver take the top two spots out of 35 major markets nationwide.

Chart from the latest National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Bullpen.

For all property types, the average rent in Toronto in October was $2,150 — $1,931 for a one-bedroom, the second month in a row that this number has ebbed under $2k, and $2,538 for a two-bedroom.

In North York, the overall average rent was $2,174 — $1,953 for a one-bedroom and $2,474 for a two-bedroom.

This is compared with Oakville, where it's now $2,359 per month to rent in general, on average, and Vancouver, with its average of $2,318.

In general, demand for rental apartments across Canada has stayed low while supply remains high — in part due to so many people moving out of urban centres now that they can work from home — though some "secondary markets" outside of large cities are starting to heat up.

Essentially, though buying a house in Toronto may still be completely unaffordable, if you've at all been considering moving from your current situation to another rental in what has traditionally been one of the most costly cities in which to live in the world, now is definitely the time to do so.