Average rent in Ontario: what landlords are asking

Median asking rent by region

By number of bedrooms (all of Ontario)

Asking rents from our listings: every rental an Ontario landlord listed on the MLS® System with us that went live in the last 24 months. The median is the middle rent (half asked more, half less), so one luxury house doesn't pull it up the way it would an average. The middle half is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile. A row needs at least 10 listings before we show it. Amounts are rounded to the nearest $5.

Where these numbers come from

• Real listings, not a survey. Each one is a rental a landlord listed on the MLS® System and realtor.ca with us, with an MLS® number. Nothing is estimated or modelled.
• Asking rent, not the signed rent. It's the monthly rent on the listing when it went live. Some leases are signed at the asking rent, some a little under or over. We don't have the final rent for most of them, so we don't mix the two.
• Region by postal code. Each listing is placed by the first three characters of its postal code, with the city name as a fallback. "Rest of Ontario" covers everything outside Toronto and the four surrounding regions (Ottawa, Hamilton, Barrie, Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo and so on).
• Bedrooms count the bedrooms above ground and in the basement together. A bachelor or studio has none.
• It updates itself. When a new rental goes live with us, it's in the numbers within minutes. Listings older than 24 months drop out.

Why our numbers can differ from other rent reports

Rent reports measure different things. Some count only apartment-building units, some only condos listed on rental websites, some the rents tenants already pay. Ours are landlords' asking rents on the MLS® System: mostly condo units, basement apartments and whole houses owned by individual landlords, across many towns. A sitting tenant's rent is often well below today's asking rents, because rent-controlled increases are capped by the yearly guideline.

Use any report as a starting point, then price your own unit against the rentals near it.

How to price your rental

1. Start from the median for your bedroom count, then compare like with like: search realtor.ca for rentals within a few blocks with the same bedrooms and type (condo, basement, whole house).
2. Adjust for what tenants pay more for: parking, in-suite laundry, a separate entrance, utilities included, a recent renovation, transit within walking distance.
3. Price to rent in the first few weeks. Each empty month costs a full month's rent, more than most small price cuts would. If there are few showing requests after a week or two, the price is usually the reason.
4. Set it right the first time. In Ontario the rent you agree with a new tenant is the starting point for every later increase, and most units can then only go up by the yearly guideline (see the rent increase guideline).

Ontario rules that affect the rent you can charge

• New tenant, any rent. Between tenants you can set the rent at whatever the market will pay; there is no vacancy control in Ontario.
• Sitting tenants: the guideline. Increases are capped at 2.1% in 2026 and 1.9% in 2027, once every 12 months, with 90 days' written notice. Units first occupied as homes after November 15, 2018 are exempt from the cap, but the 12-month and 90-day rules still apply. Details: rent increase guideline.
• Ending a tenancy to sell or move in needs an N12 with its own notice and compensation rules (N12 notice); major renovations need an N13 (N13 notice).
• Toronto: a home left empty six months or more in a year pays the City's 3% Vacant Home Tax, often more than a few months' rent.

List your rental on the MLS® System for a flat fee

Every rental in the tables above was listed by its landlord, not a leasing agent. With us your unit goes on the MLS® System and realtor.ca from $69.99 a month, tenants' agents and tenants contact you directly, and you skip the listing agent's half of the usual one month's rent plus HST (see what a realtor charges to lease). New to it? Read how to rent out your house, or check the numbers with the cap rate calculator.

Average rent questions

Flat fee MLS® prices

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