Toronto rent prices are bouncing back, up almost 15%

After bottoming out early last year, Toronto rent prices are well on their way to recovery.

A new report from Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting found that rental prices in the city are now 14.5% higher than they were one year ago. This increase brought Toronto rent prices up to a $2,317 average in January — the second-highest in the country after Vancouver’s $2,550.

Not all of Toronto saw prices shoot up across the board, though. Scarborough has actually seen a year-over-year decline in average rent prices, down 1.9% from January 2021 to an average of $1,848 per month. It’s one of just a handful of municipalities across the country to have seen a drop in rent prices.

Renting a single-family home in Toronto will now run you $3,344 per month on average — an 8.8% increase year-over-year. Condo apartments have seen an even bigger jump of 13.6%, with a new average of $2,533 per month. Rental apartment prices are up 5.7% to $2,143.

Rentals.ca

After falling an unprecedented 21% in 2020, Toronto’s rent per square foot for condo apartments is nearing pre-pandemic prices and has now gone inflated 19% year-over-year to $3.70. Looking at the downtown core, however, there is more of a gap, with rent levels well below what they were two years ago.

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Rentals.ca

“In Toronto, the downtown core was hit the hardest by the pandemic as the average per-square-foot rents declined at a quicker rate than the rest of the GTA,” the report says. “This premium has begun to widen again, with the average per-square-foot rents in Downtown Toronto increasing at a quicker rate than the rest of the GTA. Bullpen Research & Consulting expects this trend to continue moving forward, as tenants begin slowly returning to the office.”