Though Toronto is still very far from being considered an affordable place to live, rent prices in the city have been on a consistent downward trajectory for many months now, and the latest figures from March 2025 are no different.
By the end of 2024, the average cost of an apartment in the Big Smoke had plummeted to the cheapest level it had been in more than two years, which has now extended into a whopping 32-month low.
New reports from listing platforms like Zumper and Rentals.ca show that though it’s still far pricier to nab a place in the GTA than almost anywhere else in the country, tenants are being afforded more financial wiggle room than they have in previous years, with the monthly rent of all sizes of units ever-lowering while the real estate market falters.
As of last month, the typical one-bedroom unit in the region has dropped to around $2,300, marking a small reduction both month-over-month and year-over-year (by 0.4 per cent and 6.1 per cent, respectively, per Zumper, but even more according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation).
The monthly rent bill for a two-bedroom unit, meanwhile, now hovers around $2,990, which Zumper says marks a larger 2.7 per cent decline from February 2025 and an 8.5 per cent fall from March 2024.
The firm notes that Toronto overall has seen the third-most drastic deterioration in rent prices from last year to now out of any major Canadian hub, but adds that the trend has been national. And Toronto remains the second-most exorbitant place to rent, tied with Burnaby, B.C. and following Vancouver.
The 15 most expensive metropolitan areas to be a tenant in Canada, and the amount by which average prices for one- and two-bedroom units have changed from February 2025 to March 2025, and March 2024 and March 2025. Chart from Zumper’s newest Canadian Rent Report.
Elsewhere in Ontario, cities such as Kingston, Kitchener, and Barrie have seen double-digit month-over-month and/or year-over-year declines for apartments, by as much as 15.3 per cent (for two-bedroom places in Kingston specifically, though similarly sized units in Kitchener and Barrie were down by nearly as much: 11.4 per cent and 10.6 per cent, respectively).
“The Canadian national rent index has declined both month-over-month and year-over-year for the sixth consecutive month, signaling a broader cooling across the rental market,” the Zumper report, released Monday, reads.
“This sustained slowdown can be attributed to a combination of factors, including increased supply in some markets, shifting migration patterns, and affordability constraints that have pushed renters to seek more cost-effective options or delay moves altogether.”
It adds that the elephant in the room, overall economic uncertainty amid tariffs and recession-era GDP output, is a contributing factor, as “some potential renters may opt to stay in their current units longer rather than potentially face costs related to finding new housing.”
Ontario rent prices continue to plunge to levels unseen for yearshttps://t.co/spvGnBrumD
— blogTO (@blogTO) February 10, 2025
Home sales in Toronto, especially, have slowed to a mere trickle of what they once were, throwing the real estate market into a bit of a panic that has been turbo-fueled by tight economic conditions and waning profitability, confidence and feasibility of owning property in the city.
Small landlords are now lucky to break even, given how the current rental prices compare to the cost of floating their units, given what they paid. And even in the face of meagre sales volumes, home prices are hardly budging as sellers of all stripes refuse to absorb devastating losses in the hundreds of thousands.
But, experts predict that the ongoing trade war with the U.S. will serve more of a hit to the market than dwindling sales have, with some writing that Ontario cities “will undoubtedly see fewer housing starts, ongoing projects halting, and completed projects struggling to close,” along with “downward price pressure” on homes.
