Average rents in Ontario are plunging fast and here's where they're declining most

As exceedingly unaffordable as Toronto is reputed to be, now is actually one of the cheaper times to live in the city, at least when it comes to housing costs.

The region's real estate values and rent prices have plummeted markedly over the last year, pushing property owners looking to sell and landlords searching for tenants to new levels of desperation.

The latest survey of the landscape shows that the standard GTA home is now selling for 5.5 per cent less than this time last year (when prices were already on the decline). Condos are bearing the brunt of the downturn, seeing a 9.3 per cent year-over-year deterioration in sale price.

And, the turmoil is extending to rentals, the prices for which, per the latest stats, have decreased by double-digit percentages since this time in 2024.

Listing site Zumper, which regularly assesses price points for apartments across the country, says in its latest report that the median monthly cost of a one-bedroom unit in the city is now $2,220 — which is, yes, the third-most expensive of major Canadian cities, but marks the largest price drop of any place surveyed, being 11.9 per cent lower than in July of last year.

Two-bedroom rates in the city are slipping even more drastically, down 12.5 per cent year-over-year.

Looking at the country as a whole, the national rental rate has now been on a downward trend for 10 months in a row, which is bad news for landlords, especially mom-and-pop owners who are already facing other difficulties in this market.

Things are changing so swiftly in our largest and priciest markets, in fact, that it's pulling coast-to-coast data points down. As the report notes, "Canada's rental landscape is diverging noticeably by region," with "price drops hitting hardest in Ontario and B.C.'s most expensive cities" while "prairie markets like Saskatoon and Regina continue to post steady year-over-year growth."

Compared to Toronto's 11.9 per cent nosedive in one-bedroom prices from last summer to this summer, the national rate for a unit of the same size fell only 4.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, tenants in other Ontario locales are also securing places for less, though the difference is nowhere near as stark as in T.O.

From Zumper's latest National Rent Report.

In Barrie, there has been notable depreciation of both one-and two-bedroom rents (which now average at $1,760 and $2,050 per month, respectively, which is 7.2 to 8.8 per cent lower than the same time last year), while in Oshawa, costs for the same unit sizes have dipped to $1,790 and $2,000 per month, repsectively, marking year-over-year declines of 6.8 to 7.8 per cent.

Kitchener is even worse, with a 9.3 per cent reduction in the average rent for a one-bedroom unit, and 7.8 per cent for a two-bedroom.

Ottawa, St. Catharines, London, and Windsor also saw prices moving downward, with the latter serving as the most affordable rental market in Ontario that Zumper examined, though prices are not actively plummeting like they are elsewhere.