Toronto rents keep going up but some nearby cities are now seeing price declines
Today in news that should surprise nobody, Toronto rent prices continue their upward ascent as life gets back to normal and people return to downtown office jobs after two years of real estate weirdness.
Zumper's latest Canadian rent report, released on Thursday, shows rent prices for one-bedroom apartments spiked by 5.6 per cent between September and October of 2022, and a whopping 16.1 per cent year-over-year.
As of this month, people are paying about $2,090 per month on average for a one-bedroom apartment unit (not to be confused with condos, houses, townhouses and other types of rental properties which can go for considerably more).
Two-bedroom apartments just shot up some 4.3 per cent month-over-month in the 6ix, reaching an average of $2,640 — about 17.3 per cent higher than last year at the same time.
These trends are consistent with what's being observed across the rest of Canada, where 19 cities saw rents go up on a monthly basis between September and October.
Only one city — Vancouver — remained flat on a monthly basis, but still posted some of the highest year-over-year jumps at 17.4 and 25.2 per cent for one and two bedrooms respectively.
Slow-moving gems like Windsor and St. Catharines, where affordability ruled for a brief time, continue to see rents skyrocket as 2022 moves along, but two Ontario cities — just two — posted declining rent prices this time around: Hamilton and Kitchener.
While still ranked the priciest city in Canada for rent prices, Hamilton saw one-bedroom rates dip by about 3.6 per cent, month-over-month, to reach $1,590 — the kind of rent people in Toronto haven't even been able to dream of since 2014.
Kitchener, Ontario, saw one-bedroom units drop 1.7 per cent between September and October of this year, hitting $1,750. Two-bedroom prices also fell, month-over-month, by 2.4 per cent to reach $2,050.
It's hard to call a trend after just one month, but here's to hoping that Ontarians can get some kind of relief when it comes to rent prices, because nobody can afford to buy right now.
