The official rent figures and what they measure
Canada's federal housing agency surveys the rental market every October, and the Greater Toronto Area figures from the 2025 survey are the reference point most Toronto rent discussion works from. Purpose-built rental apartments in the GTA had a vacancy rate of 3.0 per cent and an average two-bedroom rent of CAD 2,034, up 3.5 per cent on the year. Rented condominium apartments, surveyed separately, had a vacancy rate of just 1.0 per cent and an average two-bedroom rent of CAD 2,904.
For scale, the national purpose-built figures in the same survey were a 3.1 per cent vacancy rate and an average two-bedroom rent of CAD 1,550, up 5.1 per cent. Toronto is well above the Canadian average in price and roughly at it in vacancy, which is a change from the very tight market of a few years ago.
One qualification matters more than any single number. These averages cover rents actually being paid by all sitting tenants, including people who signed leases years ago under rent control. They are not what a newcomer would pay to move in tomorrow.
Why the advertised rent is higher than the average rent
The gap between the average rent paid and the rent on an available unit is the central fact of the Toronto market. CMHC tracks turnover rent, the rent charged on a new lease after a tenant moves out, and for a two-bedroom purpose-built apartment in Toronto it ran CAD 2,110 in 2022, CAD 2,405 in 2023, CAD 2,612 in 2024 and CAD 2,547 in 2025. Every one of those figures is above the CAD 2,034 average across all tenants for the same year's survey, because sitting tenants are protected from large increases and new tenants are not.
The 2025 direction is genuinely new. Turnover rent fell 2.5 per cent, tenant turnover rose from a record low of 6.4 per cent to 8.5 per cent, and vacancy in buildings completed in the previous three years reached nearly 7 per cent. Three quarters of buildings completed since 2022 were offering at least one incentive, most commonly one or two months of free rent. Landlords in the newest and most expensive stock were competing for tenants for the first time in years.
That softening does not make Toronto cheap. CMHC's own affordability measure has the average GTA earner needing 42 per cent of after-tax income to rent a vacant one-bedroom, and two thirds of a minimum wage earner's disposable income to rent a vacant studio.
Condominiums, not apartment blocks, are the downtown rental stock
Toronto's downtown housing was built as condominiums for sale, and a large share of it ended up as rental anyway. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census found that in the primary downtown of the Toronto census metropolitan area, 64.8 per cent of occupied dwellings were condominiums and 54.0 per cent of those condominiums were rented, the highest condominium share among Canada's major downtowns.
The consequence for a visitor is structural rather than statistical. Downtown rental housing is owned unit by unit by individual investors, not floor by floor by a company, and CMHC noted that in 2025 owners facing a weak resale market shifted more units into the rental pool, with the share of investor-owned condominium apartments at a historic high. A market made of thousands of individual owner-landlords with mortgages to cover is exactly the market that produces a large supply of furnished short-stay apartments, and exactly the market a city regulates when it wants those units back in long-term housing.
Rent control stops at buildings first occupied after 15 November 2018
Ontario caps annual rent increases for most tenants through a provincial guideline, and the 2027 guideline is 1.9 per cent, calculated from the Ontario Consumer Price Index and capped by law at 2.5 per cent. In most cases a landlord can raise rent only once every 12 months and must give 90 days' written notice in the correct form.
Two exemptions do most of the work in the Toronto market. The guideline does not apply to new buildings, additions to existing buildings and most new basement apartments occupied for the first time for residential purposes after 15 November 2018, and it does not apply on turnover, where landlord and new tenant simply agree a price. So the newest towers, which are the ones a visitor sees most of, sit outside rent control entirely, and every vacant unit in the city resets to market rate regardless of the building's age.
That is why the CMHC data shows in-place two-bedroom rents largely flat while turnover rents move: the protected group and the exposed group are the same buildings with different tenants.
Short-term rental rules narrow what you can book
Toronto regulates short-term rentals, defined as a stay of fewer than 28 consecutive days, with the stated aim of keeping units in long-term housing. The rules are strict enough to change what appears on booking platforms. Short-term rentals are permitted only in a person's principal residence, operators must register with the City, only one registration is allowed per dwelling unit, and an operator can only have one principal residence and therefore only one legal short-term rental.
The volume limits are what a guest feels. An entire home can be short-term rented for a maximum of 180 nights per calendar year, while up to three bedrooms within a principal residence can be rented for an unlimited number of nights as a partial-unit rental. Operators must choose between entire-unit and partial-unit registration for the whole registration period. The City advises checking that a listing displays a registration number in the format STR-0000-XXXXXX and not renting one that does not.
Tax applies on top. The Municipal Accommodation Tax on transient accommodation returned to 6 per cent on 1 August 2026 when a temporary increase to 8.5 per cent ended, and it is collected by hotel and short-term rental operators alike.
How this maps onto where you should book
Read the numbers as a description of supply, not as a price you will pay. Downtown Toronto's rental housing is condominium stock, so the short-stay apartments on offer there are individual units in residential towers, usually with a lockbox or concierge handover, a building with residents rather than guests, and no hotel services. They are legal when the owner lives there and has registered, and the 180-night cap keeps the whole-unit supply structurally tight.
The purpose-built rental market is different territory and is where the softening showed up: newer buildings outside the core carrying near 7 per cent vacancy and offering incentives. That stock is largely leased by the year rather than the night, so it affects visitors mainly through the small number of operators running longer-stay serviced apartments, which is the segment to look at for a stay of a month or more where the 28-day threshold takes you out of short-term rental rules altogether.
For a stay of a few nights, the practical shortlist is a hotel or a registered short-term rental, priced with the 6 per cent accommodation tax included in your comparison. For two to four weeks, check whether crossing the 28-day line unlocks better-priced serviced or sublet options.
What these figures do not tell you
Every rent figure above is an area-wide average from CMHC's October 2025 survey, alongside city and provincial rules read on 7 September 2026. The averages do not describe any individual neighbourhood, building or listing, and they say nothing about nightly accommodation prices, which are set by hotels and hosts rather than measured in the rental market survey. Rent guidelines, accommodation tax rates and short-term rental bylaws all change; confirm the current values on the relevant government page before relying on a figure here.