Toronto’s summer of cheap rent won’t last long The market decline appears to have bottomed out
July 15, 2026
Zakiya Kassam is a writer and fact checker whose work has appeared in Post City Magazines, This Magazine and Now Toronto. She was previously the associate editor at Storeys.
The city’s rental scene appears to finally be stabilizing, according to new data from Rentals.ca and Urbanation. The report shows that Toronto’s average asking rent grew 1.2 per cent in June, to $2,537—the third monthly increase in a row. This signals a break from the real estate market’s 29-month “prolonged run of annual declines.”
Urbanation president Shaun Hildebrand says that the rental market has begun “to bottom out” from its correction cycle—but there may also be some seasonality at play. Rental demand tends to balloon in the summer and through September as post-secondary students return to the city.
Meanwhile, North York was one of the most expensive rental markets in the country last month, with the average rent increasing by 3.6 per cent from the month before—and by almost six per cent from the same time last year—to $2,563. Vancouver and North Vancouver were the only Canadian markets where average rents were steeper.
Zakiya Kassam is a writer and fact checker whose work has appeared in Post City Magazines, This Magazine and Now Toronto. She was previously the associate editor at Storeys.