{"id":531323,"date":"2026-03-12T11:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531323\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:48:10","slug":"new-report-shows-average-prices-dropping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531323\/","title":{"rendered":"New report shows average prices dropping"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cost of rent in Toronto is continuing to drop.<\/p>\n

The latest rental report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation<\/a> revealed that Toronto\u2019s rental prices hovered at an average monthly rate of $2,482 in February, reflecting a 5.3 per cent decline from the same time in 2025. It is also 11.7 per cent lower than what the city\u2019s rental market saw in 2024, the report notes. <\/p>\n

The city also saw the steepest declines across most dwelling types among Canada\u2019s largest markets, according to the report, with studios dropping by 7.9 per cent, one-bedroom units by 6.9 per cent and two-bedroom units by 7.1 per cent. <\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s rental market is seeing one of the largest downturns in cost in recent history, and in the case of Toronto, one analyst says it is \u201chard to imagine\u201d that prices will surge anytime soon. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually expect that the summer rental season to pick up with demand and with that comes rental prices, but even last summer, we didn\u2019t see Toronto rents increase. It actually went the other way around,\u201d Giacomo Ladas, associate director of communications at Rentals.ca, said.<\/p>\n

There is an influx of supply in Toronto, Ladas noted, pointing to a glut of new purpose-built rentals and condos entering the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what makes me believe that I don\u2019t see demand picking up to the point where supply can match it throughout 2026 because there\u2019s so much more supply,\u201d Ladas said.<\/p>\n

Ralph Fox, broker of record and co-founder of Fox Marin Associates, says supply and demand within a rental market swings like a pendulum. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short term, we\u2019ll probably see continued softness as a result of pressures on the economy and due to immigration and still a surge of supply coming online,\u201d Fox said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut long term, as the pendulum starts to move, it\u2019ll move back the other way, Overall, I think rents were getting out of whack relative to incomes so I think it\u2019s a healthy breather and I think it does start to create an environment, especially for younger people, where they can start to save.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other cities outside of Toronto have also seen the cost of rent decline. Oakville, with a monthly average of $2,458 for a one-bedroom apartment, saw rent decrease by 4.1 per cent, and Burlington, with a monthly average of $2,356 for the same unit, saw a 4.5 per cent decline year-over-year.<\/p>\n

Though there is a surplus of supply, Ladas says demand has declined, which has prompted a rise of rental incentives across newer buildings (from a couple of months of free rent or parking, or even Aeroplan points<\/a>). <\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that, we are also seeing that the average square foot of a rental unit is decreasing, which I think also plays a factor into this,\u201d Ladas added, noting how that square footage has dropped by 6.3 per cent to an average of 826-square-feet though the average rent per square foot has remained the same year-over-year.<\/p>\n

While Ladas thinks the smaller units are playing a part for a lack of demand, Fox says his younger clients are more drawn to these rentals. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of a misnomer about the sizes of spaces relative to functionality, layout and location, and I think there is a counterbalance to that and some of that is just basic affordability and the price of living in a big city,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as they\u2019re well constructed and they have great layouts, they can be really functional and enjoyable to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Younger renters are also scouring for buildings that offer rent-controlled units, Fox says, as a way of protecting themselves from costlier changes to their rent year-over-year.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s challenging to forecast the future, if rental costs continue to fall, Ladas said the market could become more favourable for renters\u2014particularly those drawn in by nicer amenities and hard-to-beat incentives. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who already have an apartment are now seeing that a building down their street, which is much newer, nicer, has condo-like amenities, is now $800 less than their current rent, and that means that they either will start negotiating with their landlords to decrease their asking rents\u2014which landlords are going to be hesitant to do\u2014or they\u2019re just going to move,\u201d Ladas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cost of rent in Toronto is continuing to drop. The latest rental report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-531323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}