Market Insight for May 22

A new national rental report indicates that Ontario remains at the forefront of Canada’s rental market correction, with almost every major city examined in the province posting year-over-year rent decreases. The lone exception was one city, where strong student-driven demand continues to put upward pressure on prices.

According to digital marketplace Zumper’s Canadian National Rent Report, all nine Ontario cities featured in the study except Kingston saw annual declines in one-bedroom rents over the past year.

The report examines rental information from thousands of active listings, which are compiled each month to determine median asking rents across the country’s 23 largest metro areas by population.

Nationally, asking rents for both one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments climbed in April for the first time in seven months. Across Canada, one-bedroom rents edged up 0.2 per cent month-over-month in April to $1,782, while two-bedroom rents rose 0.3 per cent to $2,210.

On a year-over-year basis, national one-bedroom rents are down 2.9 per cent, while two-bedroom rents have fallen 1.7 per cent.

Within Ontario, Oshawa posted the steepest annual decline in one-bedroom rents, dropping 11.6 per cent. Meanwhile, Kingston was the only market to record growth, with one-bedroom rents increasing 9.2 per cent year-over-year. That increase, the report notes, can be attributed to a chronic shortage of student housing tied to demand from Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College.

In Toronto, one-bedroom rents fell 8.3 per cent annually to $2,100, while two-bedroom rents dropped 5.6 per cent to $2,700.

Other Ontario cities included in the report saw modest declines in their one-bedroom rents year-over-year, including London (-1.2 per cent), Ottawa (-2.5 per cent), Barrie (-3.3 per cent), Kitchener (-3.4 per cent), and Windsor (-4.3 per cent), while other cities, including St. Catharines (-6.9 per cent) and Hamilton (-9.4 per cent) recorded more significant declines.