Published 2 November 2026 · By Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty
The average one-bedroom condo in Toronto leased for $2,316 a month and a two-bedroom for $3,154 in Q2 2026, TRREB’s latest report. Rentals.ca put Toronto’s October 2026 apartment and condo average at $2,590, up 1.6% in a year. Three-bedroom townhouses averaged $3,575. No source publishes basement-only averages.
This guide is for anyone who rents in Toronto, or plans to, and wants real numbers before signing a lease in 2027. You will get the latest average rents for condos, townhouses and houses from four named sources, an honest answer on basement rents, the income landlords usually look for, and the rules that limit your increases.
What is the average rent in Toronto right now?
A one-bedroom condo apartment in the City of Toronto leased for an average of $2,316 a month in the second quarter of 2026, and a two-bedroom for $3,154. Those are the latest figures from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), based on 15,388 condo leases signed through its MLS System. TRREB had not yet published its third-quarter rental report when I checked on 5 November 2026.
Other sources give lower or higher numbers because they count different things. Rentals.ca and Urbanation track asking rents on new listings. liv.rent tracks unfurnished asking rents. CMHC surveys older purpose-built rental buildings (towers owned by one landlord), where many tenants have lived for years at lower rents.
| Source and date | What it counts | 1-bedroom | 2-bedroom | 3-bedroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRREB, Q2 2026 | Condo apartments leased on MLS (average) | $2,316 | $3,154 | $3,882 |
| Rentals.ca and Urbanation, October 2026 | Apartment and condo asking rents (average) | Not published | $2,971 | $3,643 |
| liv.rent, October 2026 | Unfurnished asking rents, all listing types | $1,969 | Not published city-wide | Not published city-wide |
| CMHC, October 2025 | Purpose-built apartments, occupied and vacant (average) | $1,763 | $2,055 | $2,361 |
Source: TRREB Rental Market Report Q2 2026; Rentals.ca and Urbanation National Rent Report, 5 November 2026; liv.rent October 2026 Ontario Rent Report; CMHC Rental Market Survey, City of Toronto, October 2025.
Rentals.ca put the overall Toronto apartment and condo average at $2,590 in October 2026. If you are signing a new lease today, the TRREB and Rentals.ca numbers are closer to what you will actually pay. The CMHC number tells you what long-time tenants pay, not what a new tenant will be offered.
How much does a condo cost to rent in each part of Toronto?
Where you rent matters as much as how many bedrooms you need. TRREB splits the city into three regions using its district codes. Downtown is the most expensive, and the east end is the cheapest.
| TRREB area (Q2 2026) | Condo leases | Bachelor | 1-bedroom | 2-bedroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto West (W01 to W10) | 2,087 | $1,748 | $2,243 | $2,916 |
| Toronto Central (C01 to C15) | 12,243 | $1,875 | $2,342 | $3,256 |
| Toronto East (E01 to E11) | 1,058 | $1,655 | $2,151 | $2,652 |
| C01 (downtown) | 4,233 | $1,934 | $2,475 | $3,494 |
| C08 (downtown) | 3,535 | $1,829 | $2,269 | $3,122 |
Source: TRREB Rental Market Report Q2 2026, City of Toronto municipal breakdown. Averages of leased condo apartments; district codes are TRREB’s own.
liv.rent breaks the city into named areas instead. In its October 2026 report, unfurnished one-bedrooms asked $2,083 downtown, $2,113 in Etobicoke, $1,969 in North York, $1,915 in York, $1,884 in Scarborough and $1,851 in East York. Two-bedrooms ranged from $2,291 in Scarborough to $2,825 downtown. These are asking rents, so the final lease can land lower.
How much does it cost to rent a house or townhouse in Toronto?
Townhouses are the closest thing to a house that the big reports track. TRREB recorded 550 townhouse leases in the City of Toronto in Q2 2026. The average was $2,932 for two bedrooms and $3,575 for three bedrooms.
CMHC’s survey of purpose-built rental townhouses, which are older complexes owned by one landlord, showed much lower averages in October 2025: $2,133 for two bedrooms and $2,187 for three or more. Those units rarely come up, so do not plan your budget around them.
For three-bedroom homes of any type, Rentals.ca reported a Toronto average of $3,643 in October 2026, up 4.3% from a year earlier. liv.rent’s unfurnished three-bedroom asking rents were $3,853 downtown, $3,402 in Etobicoke, $3,174 in North York and $2,778 in Scarborough.
No public report gives a city-wide average for a whole detached house with a yard. If that is what you want, ask a realtor to pull recent leased houses on MLS for the exact streets you like. That is the only reliable way to price one.
How much is a basement apartment in Toronto?
No public source publishes an average rent for basement apartments in Toronto. Rentals.ca and liv.rent both include basement units in their data, but neither reports them as a separate number. Anyone who quotes a precise “average basement rent” is guessing.
Here is how I would judge a basement price instead. Start with the one-bedroom asking rent for that part of the city in the liv.rent figures above. Then ask yourself what the unit has and lacks: ceiling height, window size, a separate entrance, private laundry, parking, and whether heat, hydro and internet are included. A bright, legal unit with its own laundry deserves to be close to a condo one-bedroom. A dark unit with shared laundry and split utilities should be well below it.
If heat is included in your rent, Toronto requires the landlord to keep the unit at 21°C or warmer from 1 October to 15 May. My guide to the Toronto heat by-law for tenants explains how to complain if it is cold. If you own a home and are thinking of adding a unit yourself, read buying a house with a basement apartment in Toronto first.
Instant Home Valuation
What’s your home
worth today?
Answer six quick questions and get an instant value range built from current Toronto & GTA sale data — property type, size, condition, lot and location all weighted the way a real pricing conversation weighs them. Takes about ninety seconds.
Reading recent GTA sale data…
Building your estimate
Estimated market value
—
$0–$0
Most likely value $0 · roughly $0 per square foot
What moved the number
Starting from the area baseline for your property type, here’s what each answer added or subtracted.
Market context
Recent local averages for comparison.
—
A range is a starting point.
A strategy is what sells.
This model doesn’t know that your neighbour’s identical semi went $80,000 over asking last month, or which two upgrades actually pay back in your area. That conversation is free and takes twenty minutes.
Are Toronto rents going up or down in 2027?
Toronto rents have stopped falling. In October 2026, Rentals.ca and Urbanation reported the city’s apartment and condo average up 1.6% from a year earlier. That was Toronto’s first annual increase after 32 months of decline. Urbanation’s president said, “The window for cheaper rents is closing in Toronto and Vancouver,” and pointed to shrinking new supply.
TRREB was more cautious in its Q2 2026 report. It said conditions should keep favouring renters in the near term, but could tighten gradually because leases were growing faster than listings. liv.rent showed unfurnished one-bedrooms still slightly cheaper than a year ago, at $1,969 versus $2,044 in October 2025. CMHC’s survey found the vacancy rate in Toronto’s purpose-built apartments rose to 2.8% in October 2025, from 2.3% a year earlier.
My view, and it is only a view: I expect Toronto rents to be flat to slightly higher through 2027, not lower. If you are moving anyway, the incentives and room to negotiate you see today may not last.
How much income do you need to rent in Toronto?
CMHC treats housing as affordable when it costs less than 30% of a household’s income before tax. To stay inside that line, your yearly household income should be about 40 times the monthly rent. Landlords set their own screening rules, but many use a test close to this one.
| Home type (source) | Monthly rent | Income needed at 30% |
|---|---|---|
| Unfurnished 1-bedroom asking rent (liv.rent, Oct 2026) | $1,969 | $78,760 |
| Condo 1-bedroom (TRREB, Q2 2026) | $2,316 | $92,640 |
| Condo 2-bedroom (TRREB, Q2 2026) | $3,154 | $126,160 |
| 3-bedroom townhouse (TRREB, Q2 2026) | $3,575 | $143,000 |
Source: CMHC definition of affordable housing (under 30% of before-tax household income); rents from TRREB Q2 2026 and liv.rent October 2026. Income figures are my arithmetic: monthly rent x 12 / 0.30.
If your income is below the line, a co-signer (guarantor) or a larger share of roommates can help. Know what a landlord can and cannot ask for before you hand over documents. My guide to what a landlord can ask on a rental application in Ontario covers it.
How much can a Toronto landlord raise the rent in 2027?
For most rent-controlled units, the most a landlord can raise the rent in 2027 is 1.9%, which is Ontario’s rent increase guideline for that year. On a $2,316 one-bedroom, that is about $44 a month. The landlord must wait at least 12 months between increases and give you at least 90 days’ written notice.
The big exception is newer buildings. Units first occupied for residential use after 15 November 2018 are exempt from the guideline. Any condo tower completed since then falls into this group, so the increase there can be any amount. My guide to the Ontario rent increase guideline for 2027 shows how to check which side of the line your unit is on.
Two basement rules surprise tenants. First, if you share a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, or the owner’s close family, and they live in the same building, the Residential Tenancies Act does not cover you at all. Second, most basement units first lived in after 15 November 2018 are exempt from Ontario’s rent increase guideline, so the rent can rise by any amount once a year with proper notice. Ask both questions before you sign.
At the start, a landlord can ask for a rent deposit of no more than one month’s rent, and it must be used for your last month. Damage deposits are not allowed. See my article on rental deposit rules in Ontario for details.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy a condo in Toronto?
Condo prices have fallen, which narrows the gap. The table compares the median condo apartment sale price in two downtown districts with a year of average rent there.
| District | Median condo price, Jan to Oct 2026 | Change vs 2025 | Yearly rent, 1-bedroom | Yearly rent, 2-bedroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto C01 | $600,000 | -6.6% | $29,700 | $41,928 |
| Toronto C08 | $565,000 | -7.4% | $27,228 | $37,464 |
Source: TRREB MLS data via REALM, January to October 2026 vs the same period of 2025 (median sold price, all condo apartments); TRREB Rental Market Report Q2 2026 (average rents x 12).
A median C01 condo costs about 14 years of two-bedroom rent, or about 20 years of one-bedroom rent. Owning also means interest, property tax, condo fees and upkeep, so the price alone does not settle it. I worked through the full monthly maths in is it better to rent or buy in the GTA in 2027.
Use the TRREB averages as your ceiling and the liv.rent area figures as your opening offer. In most of the city, renters still have choice in late 2026, so ask for a small discount, a free parking spot or a later start date. Before you sign anything, confirm three things in writing: whether the unit is rent-controlled, which utilities are included, and that you are getting the Ontario standard lease.
What to do next
- Pick two or three parts of the city and compare their TRREB and liv.rent averages for your bedroom count.
- Work out your rent ceiling: your yearly household income divided by 40.
- For any unit you like, ask when it was first occupied and whether it falls under the rent increase guideline.
- For a basement, ask about shared kitchens or bathrooms, the utility split and the heat setting before you apply.
- If you are weighing renting against buying, run the numbers on a real condo you could afford, not a city average.
Need help with this? Talk to me.
I’m Jatin Dua, Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, and I’m the best agent to do this kind of work for you in Toronto and across the GTA. Over $100 million in GTA sales and 100+ families helped sell. Feel free to contact me any time: call or text 833-330-1925 or email [email protected].
Frequently asked questions
What is the average rent in Toronto in 2026?
The average one-bedroom condo in the City of Toronto leased for $2,316 a month in Q2 2026, and a two-bedroom for $3,154, according to TRREB’s latest rental report. Rentals.ca and Urbanation put Toronto’s average apartment and condo asking rent at $2,590 in October 2026. Older purpose-built buildings are cheaper, with CMHC reporting $1,763 for a one-bedroom in October 2025.
How much is a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto per month?
A one-bedroom in Toronto costs roughly $1,970 to $2,320 a month in late 2026, depending on the source. liv.rent reported an unfurnished asking average of $1,969 in October 2026, while TRREB’s Q2 2026 average for leased condo one-bedrooms was $2,316. Downtown district C01 averaged $2,475, and the east end averaged $2,151.
How much does it cost to rent a house in Toronto?
No public report gives a city-wide average for renting a detached house in Toronto. The closest figures are three-bedroom townhouses, which averaged $3,575 a month on TRREB’s MLS in Q2 2026, and Rentals.ca’s three-bedroom average of $3,643 in October 2026. For a specific street, ask a realtor to pull recent leased houses on MLS.
What is the average rent for a basement in Toronto?
No published source reports an average rent for basement apartments in Toronto as of November 2026. Rentals.ca and liv.rent include basements in their totals but do not separate them. Compare a basement with local one-bedroom asking rents, which ranged from $1,851 in East York to $2,113 in Etobicoke in liv.rent’s October 2026 report, then adjust for light, laundry and utilities.
Are rents going down in Toronto?
No, Toronto rents stopped falling in late 2026. Rentals.ca and Urbanation reported the city’s apartment and condo average up 1.6% year over year in October 2026, the first annual increase after 32 months of declines. TRREB expected conditions to favour renters in the near term but said the market could tighten gradually.
How much do I need to earn to rent in Toronto?
To keep rent under 30% of income, CMHC’s affordability line, you need a household income of about 40 times the monthly rent. For Toronto’s Q2 2026 average one-bedroom condo rent of $2,316, that is about $92,640 a year. For a two-bedroom at $3,154, it is about $126,160. Landlords set their own screening rules.
How much can my landlord raise my rent in Toronto in 2027?
Most Toronto landlords can raise rent by no more than 1.9% in 2027, Ontario’s rent increase guideline. They must wait 12 months between increases and give 90 days’ written notice. Units first occupied for residential use after 15 November 2018, including many newer condos and basements, are exempt from the guideline.
Is a basement apartment covered by the Residential Tenancies Act in Ontario?
Yes, a self-contained basement apartment in Toronto is usually covered by Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act. The exception is when you must share a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, or the owner’s spouse, child or parent, and that person lives in the same building. In that case the Act does not apply, so you lose its eviction and rent protections.
What is the cheapest area to rent in Toronto?
The east end is the cheapest part of Toronto for condo rentals. TRREB’s Q2 2026 report showed a $2,151 average one-bedroom in Toronto East (E01 to E11), against $2,342 in Central Toronto. In liv.rent’s October 2026 asking rents, East York ($1,851) and Scarborough ($1,884) had the lowest unfurnished one-bedroom averages.
How do I rent a house in Toronto?
To rent a house in Toronto, set a budget near 30% of your household income, then search MLS-based sites and ask a realtor to show you leased comparables. Prepare proof of income, references and a credit report. Expect a first and last month’s payment, insist on Ontario’s standard lease, and confirm in writing who pays heat, hydro and water.
Sources
- TRREB Rental Market Report, Q2 2026 (released 31 August 2026)
- Rentals.ca and Urbanation National Rent Report, October 2026 (released 5 November 2026)
- liv.rent October 2026 Ontario Rent Report
- CMHC Rental Market Survey data tables, Toronto CMA, October 2025
- Ontario: Rent increase guideline
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (Ontario e-Laws)
- City of Toronto: Indoor temperatures in apartment units
- CMHC: About affordable housing in Canada
Related reading
- Can My Landlord Enter Without Notice in Ontario?
- Can a Landlord Evict You Without Going to the LTB in Ontario?
- Can My Landlord Raise the Rent Every Year in Ontario? 2027 Rules
- Can a Landlord Put Security Cameras in or Outside a Rental in Ontario?
About the author — Jatin Dua, Toronto and GTA real estate broker
I am Jatin Dua, Broker of Record and co-founder of RE/MAX Quantum Realty Inc., Brokerage, Unit 101, 799 The Queensway, Toronto. I work with buyers and sellers across Toronto and the GTA and have helped more than 100 families sell. Four-plus years of active GTA transactions and over $100 million in sales volume.
Reach me at [email protected] or 833-330-1925, or book a call.