This is how much you have to make an hour to rent an average 2-bedroom apartment in Toronto: report

In order to afford an average-priced two-bedroom apartment in Toronto, you would need to make nearly $34/h, according to a new report.

The report, which was prepared by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, revealed that minimum wage earners in Toronto need to work much longer hours in order to afford the rent for an average two-bedroom unit.

According to the report, you would need to make $33.70/h to afford an average two-bedroom or work 96 hours a week at the provincial minimum wage rate of $14/h.

But it’s not much better for a one-bedroom, as you’ll need to make at least $27.74/h or work 79 hours a week to afford this rent.

The report, which uses rental data from the Canada Morgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), calculates rental wages by breaking down the hourly wage that full-time minimum wage workers would need to earn in order to afford the rent for an average one or two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30% of their earnings.

“In most Canadian cities, including Canada’s largest metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver, there are no neighbourhoods where it is possible to afford a one or-two-bedroom unit on a single minimum wage,” reads the report.

According to the report, there are 117 neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but in none of them could a full-time minimum-wage worker comfortably (and in many cases uncomfortably) afford either a one or two-bedroom apartment.

The same goes for Vancouver’s 65 neighbourhoods, where rent for an average two-bedroom is even higher at $35.43/h.

See also

• This is how much it's going to cost millennials to live in Toronto in 2019
• This is how much money you need to make to live alone in Toronto in 2019
• This is how much you need to make to buy the average home in Toronto: report

Greater Toronto Area two-bedroom rental wage by neighbourhood

And while the hourly rate differentiates greatly by what part of the city you want to live in, all of Toronto’s neighbourhoods aren’t particularly affordable, according to the report.

For example, you would have to make $37.38/hr or work 107/hrs a week at minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the Richmond Hill/Vaughan/King area.

Or if you’re interested in living on The Island, you’ll need to make $53.01/hr or work 151/hrs a week to afford rent.

However, if you want to live in downtown Toronto in the Bay Street Corridor area, the rate gets even higher. In this part of the city, you would need to make $71.13/hr or work 209/hrs a week to afford a two-bedroom unit.

“The rental wage neighbourhood maps in this report and the accompanying online database show a common reality known to all renters, which is that it is more expensive to live downtown—close to most jobs—than in outlying areas that necessitate longer commutes and often the purchase of a car,” reads the report.

“The notable exception is Montreal where more affordable neighbourhoods continue to exist on the island itself and public transit is abundant.”