Average rents in GTA rise 5th month in a row

Average rents for all property types increased 0.9 per cent in August over July to $2,097 in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), according to the latest Bullpen Research & Consulting and TorontoRentals.com Toronto GTA Rent Report.  

This is the fifth straight month of a rent increase after 14 consecutive months of pandemic-induced decreases.

Even with the recent uptrend, the average rent is down 4 per cent annually from $2,184 per month in August 2020, and 14 per cent from August 2019’s average rent of $2,450 per month.

Despite worries about a fourth wave of COVID-19, a return to normalcy continues in the GTA with colleges and universities opening up, as well as primary schools, malls, stores, gyms, and downtown office buildings.

The majority of the areas in the GTA experienced monthly increases in average rent in August, including Whitby, 6.6 per cent; Scarborough, 3.9 per cent; Richmond Hill, 2.6 per cent; Milton, 2.3 per cent and Mississauga, 2.1 per cent. Other cities and areas with slight month-over-month increases were: North York, up 1.3 per cent; York, East York and Brampton, all up 1 per cent; Vaughan up 0.8 per cent and Toronto, up 0.7 per cent.

“After several months of large rental units leading the recovery out of the pandemic-induced rental slump, smaller units were popular in August, with average rents for one bedroom units increasing by a whopping 5 per cent monthly in the GTA,” said Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research & Consulting. “The market bottom is now clearly in the past, with many of Toronto’s most desirable neighbourhoods seeing average rents increase by $200 to $350 per month over the last six months.”

On a neighbourhood level, the area with the highest rents is the University area in Toronto at $2,459 a month. University had the highest rents for a studio at $1,945 and for a one-bedroom at $2,245 per month. Bay Street Corridor had the highest two-bedroom rents at $2,922 per month, while Rosedale-Moore Park had the highest three-bedroom rents at $3,972 a month. 

Living in South Parkdale is about 27 per cent less expensive on average than renting in Rosedale-Moore Park. 

Twenty-three of 27 condo apartment projects with high activity on TorontoRentals.com in the GTA saw an overall average increase of 11 per cent in monthly rents in July and August over January and February of this year.

The project with the highest increase was Axis Condos ($1,788 per month to $2,510 per month). This 38-storey building was completed in 2019 at 411 Church Street.

The average rent for single-family homes in the GTA has increased throughout 2021 in most of the active markets on TorontoRentals.com.

The average rents for condo apartments, after steadily declining throughout 2020, have not risen as quickly as those of single-family homes. Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, and Mississauga are trending upward the fastest in August, while York and Scarborough are flat.

The average rent for purpose-built rental apartments, after declining for most of 2020, have also shown increases throughout 2021.

The average rent for apartments in the former city of Toronto was $2,094 per month in August, up 8 per cent  from the March 2021 low of $1,938 per month.

Other takeaways from the September Toronto GTA Rent Report include:

• The postal codes with a high average rent per square foot are clustered in the downtown Toronto area, with the downtown west higher priced than the downtown east. In south Etobicoke, rents per square foot are also high, driven by the waterfront condos in the Humber Bay Shores area

• The neighbourhoods of Bay Street Corridor, Waterfront Communities-The Island, Niargara, Moss Park and Church-Yonge Corridor saw rent increases of about $200 to $350 per month for condo rentals and apartments since the first quarter of the year.

• The average rent for studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units all experienced month-over-month increases in average rent in August for all property types in the GTA. Studio units increased 1.4 per cent monthly to $1,525 on average. One-bedroom units increased by 5.1 per cent monthly to $1,864. Two-bedroom units increased 1.3 per cent to $2,308 per month.

The Toronto GTA Rent Report takes a deeper dive into analyzing monthly, quarterly and annual asking rates and trends in the Toronto and the GTA rental markets.

View the September Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting National Rent Report.