Some Toronto rental prices are back to pre-pandemic levels

Toronto rental prices continued to climb for the fourth month in a row, with one segment of the market soaring all the way up to pre-pandemic prices.

In the month of August, Toronto rent prices for all rental and condo apartments hit $2,170, according to the most recent National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research and Consulting. Although this is still down 2.2% from August 2020, Toronto rent prices have been steadily coming back over the past few months.

Rentals.ca

One-bedrooms in Toronto are now going for an average price of $1,989 — a 7.2% increase from July — and two-bedrooms are now up to $2,628, which is a 15% increase since they bottomed out in February.

One portion of the Toronto rental market, however, surpassed pre-pandemic prices. Single-family homes now have a higher average rental rate than they did in August 2019. In 2019, they were fetching an average of $2,672. Last month, the average price was $2,845. And this price growth isn’t expected to stop any time soon.

“The rental market continued its upward trend on a national basis in August as some normalcy returns to the country,” said Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research and Consulting. “With elementary schools opening in September, there was strong rent growth for single-family properties again in August. Toronto and Vancouver are experiencing huge rental demand, especially for higher-end condos.”

Broken down by neighbourhood, each area as a whole is still down from 2019 prices, but many are now above 2020 prices. The Bay Street Corridor is the most expensive neighbourhood, with average rental prices hitting $2,549 in August — up 0.8% year over year.

Rentals.ca

Kensington-Chinatown has experienced the largest year-over-year growth, with prices shooting up 9% to an average of $2,401.