Toronto: Rent is going up more than $100 a month right now, pushing average asking price to new record

Although the pace of increase has come down ever so slightly, the price of rental accommodation in Canada continues to go up, with the average new tenant now being asked to pay $2,117 a month.

That’s according to a new report from Rentals.ca and real estate consulting and data firm Urbanation, which tabulates the data every month from their database of the largest single group of rental listings across the country.

The $2,117 figure is an increase of 9.6 per cent from the average rent in August of last year. That’s down from an all-time high of 12 per cent recorded from August 2021 until August 2022, but still the highest-ever figure in dollar terms.

The ongoing tumult in the housing market has garnered numerous headlines of late, as the Bank of Canada’s campaign to tame inflation has caused mortgage rates to skyrocket.

That’s spilling over into the rental market, as individual landlords are trying to pass those costs on to their tenants.

In response to demand and a slew of new Canadians coming into the country looking for housing, construction activity has picked up for purpose-built rentals.

But it’s not coming online fast enough to bring down rents.

“Despite rental apartment completions in Canada over the past 12 months reaching their highest level since the 1970s, rent growth has remained exceptionally strong,” the report said.

Strained budgets

Since May, the average asking price for a new rental has increased by $103 a month.

That comes as no surprise to Cassandra Kranjec, who earlier this year begrudgingly agreed to a 14 per cent increase in her rent on a one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood.

“I was originally paying $2,100 a month, which was above my budget, but he mentioned that we had to up the rent to $2,400 a month due to his mortgage,” she told CBC News.

Kranjec works two jobs yet still spends more than half of her income on rent. Her main job could be done remotely, so she contemplated moving to a part of Ontario with cheaper rent, but quickly realized those options were also limited.

Prior to moving to Toronto last year, she was paying $1,850 for a similar unit in Kitchener, Ont., where she had to have a car. At least living where she does in Toronto, she doesn’t need the expense of a vehicle.

“It’s really not worth it … to move anywhere else, because the prices are being increased all over Ontario,” she said.

She’s not wrong. While Toronto and Vancouver still lead the way in terms of rent, the rest of the country is catching up fast.

Rents rising almost everywhere

According to the report, average asking rents in Ontario overall hit $2,496 last month, only slightly behind Toronto’s $2,898 average.

Prices in the rest of the province are actually going up at a faster pace than they are in Toronto — 9.9 per cent compared to 8.7 per cent.

In terms of the pace of increase, other parts of the country have it worse.

In British Columbia, the average rent clocked in at $2,675 during the month, up 10.8 per cent in the past year. Vancouver alone saw the average asking price for a rental apartment hit $3,316 a month — an increase of 7.3 per cent.

CBC/MS