Ontario rent prices keep tumbling to record lows

Residents may not have been able to ever foresee a time when the cost of housing in and around Toronto would take a nosedive rather than surging ever upwards, but in 2025, here we are.

Homes just aren't selling like they used to, property values are sliding, and the average monthly rate for an apartment, too, has been on a steady downward trend.

New data from the month of September shows that tenants eyeing a new place to live are enjoying some of the lowest rent prices in years, not just in Toronto, but in communities across the province and country.

"Asking rents in Canada decreased 3.2 per cent in September from last year's record high to an average of $2,123, marking the twelfth consecutive month of year-over-year declines... rents were [also] down 1.2 per cent from two years ago, registering the first two-year decline since January 2022." states a new report from Urbanation and Rentals.ca on how rates are changing nationwide.

"The latest rent declines have coincided with record high apartment completions, population decreases for non-permanent residents, and a weakening job market."

While Toronto is still one of the priciest places to live in Canada, the typical one-bedroom apartment is now around $2,295 and a two-bedroom place, $2,941, per the firm's numbers, marking respective drops of 5.1 per cent and 7 per cent from this time last year, and 0.8 per cent/0.2 per cent from just one month ago.

Marked annual and/or monthly decreases were also noted pretty much across the board for the Ontario locales examined, including Ajax, Oakville, Etobicoke, Scarborough, London, Guelph, Brampton, Barrie, Waterloo, Ottawa, Cambridge, Kitchener, Oshawa, Sarnia, Welland, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Mississauga and Niagara Falls.

The most significant deteriorations, percentage-wise, were seen in Vaughan, where the cost to rent a one-bedroom unit plummeted a whopping 10.6 per cent between Sept. 2024 and Sept. 2025, to $2,120, and East York, where the same figure plunged 11.9 per cent year-over-year, to $1,940.

Even more drastic was the change in two-bedroom unit rents in East York, which are now 15.1 per cent lower than they were this time last year, sitting at $2,400 — just slightly more than a single-bedroom place in downtown Toronto.

The 20 most expensive places to rent in Canada, according to last month's data, and how prices have shifted over time. Chart from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.

The only outliers within the province were university towns like Windsor, where the price of the average one-bedroom rose 7.6 per cent year-over-year and 4.1 per cent month-over-month, and a two-bedroom, 6.8 per cent year-over-year and 4.7 per cent month-over-month.

Kingston is also experiencing a spike in rental rates, by 17.8 per cent y/o/y and 3 per cent m/o/m for one-bedrooms, and by 18.6 per cent y/o/y for two-bedrooms (though they fell a slight 0.7 per cent m/o/m for that unit size).

In Greater Sudbury, too, costs have climbed slightly, by 0.9 per cent for one-bedrooms versus this time last year (though the current rate of $2,129 is 0.6 per cent less than it was in August). The going rate for a two-bedroom unit in the northern city surged by double-digits — 16.7 per cent — to $2,555 (which is a slight 1.1 per cent drop from August).

Essentially, it's a pretty great time to try and secure a new apartment if you're anywhere in Ontario outside of major student hubs, and a pretty crappy time to own property in general if you're trying to rent it out or sell it.

In the face of Ontario's topsy-turvy market, other provinces saw even starker shifts in their rental landscapes, including B.C. and Alberta, which pulled down the national average last month.