January 2023 Toronto Rent Report

Looking for our full January 2023 Toronto Rent Report? Download your copy here to get all the latest insights, including a detailed breakdown by neighbourhood.

The Greater Toronto Area’s rent prices have fallen slightly again to begin 2023. This January, the GTA’s monthly average rent price for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit has fallen by just $3, flattening the upward trend that characterized much of 2022. This is the third consecutive month-to-month decline after a long streak of increases that were brought on by Canada’s continually rising interest rates and consistently high demand for rental housing.

We’ll soon be releasing our 2023 Canada-wide Report with even more rental data and statistics. For access to this and other updates on the Toronto rental market, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.

Let’s take a look now at the latest data and see which neighbourhoods are experiencing the biggest changes in furnished and unfurnished rental rates.

Jump to the following Toronto Rent Report sections:

Toronto rent trends

The average rent price for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit in the Greater Toronto Area has just barely dipped this January, falling by a minuscule $3 since December. Despite three consecutive month-to-month declines in the region’s average rental rates, the GTA’s average monthly rent price for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit is now up $401 since January 2022.

Month-to-month rent change

This chart breaks down the percentage change in rent across all GTA cities/municipalities from December 2022 to January 2023.

Unfurnished Toronto rent trends

In terms of unfurnished units, changes were fairly insignificant this month. Markham saw the largest increase (+7.94%), while the largest month-to-month decrease occurred in North York (-3.95%). In Downtown Toronto, the average rent price for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit fell (2.92%).

Furnished Toronto rent trends

As per usual, furnished units in the GTA’s various municipalities saw larger month-to-month changes. The largest increase this month came in Markham (+11.38%), while the most notable decline was seen in Vaughan-Richmond Hill (-7.65%) – though Etobicoke (-7.57%) wasn’t far behind. In Downtown Toronto, prices increased by +2.07% on average.

Toronto furnished vs unfurnished averages

On average, furnished rental units remain significantly more expensive than unfurnished units this January. At present, furnished one-bedroom units cost $233 more than unfurnished units as a whole – which is in line with what we’re used to seeing.

This means that landlords choosing to rent their units furnished can expect to earn more profits over time, particularly if they decide to rent their units on a short-term basis. Renters who bring their own furniture can still find significant savings in the GTA.

Rent per square foot

New for 2023, our monthly Rent Reports will look more closely at average rent per square foot in municipalities throughout the Greater Toronto Area. In January, Downtown Toronto has the most expensive rent per square foot, while Scarborough offers the least expensive costs for space.

Compared to Vancouver, rent per square foot is much higher in the GTA – with Metro Vancouver’s region-wide average just $2.87 per square foot.

Active listing data

New for 2023, we’ll be looking at detailed statistics for currently active listings available on the market to see which property types and number of bedrooms are the most represented. For renters, these numbers show which types of units you’re most likely to encounter in the Greater Toronto Area, while for landlords, you can get assess how much competition you’ll face based on the current supply.

Active listings by property type

For January 2023, the most common rental property type by far was apartments, representing a whopping 88.76% of active listings on the market. Partial houses (e.g. basement suites) were the second-most rented unit type this month, at 5.13% of active listings currently available to rent.

Active listings by number of bedrooms

In terms of the number of bedrooms, we saw a more even spread across active listings on the market this month. Two-bedroom units were the most common type of listing this month at 42.12%, though one-bedroom units still represented 37.37% of all active listings on the market.

City breakdown

Brampton is still the cheapest GTA municipality to begin 2023, while Downtown Toronto unsurprisingly remains the most expensive.

The average price for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit in Brampton has dropped to $1,605, while in Downtown Toronto, the same type of unit goes for $2,441 – a difference of $836.

Because Ontario’s different communities are so diverse, we’re breaking down the GTA into its different cities and municipalities to see the price difference within listing types: one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units, both unfurnished and furnished.

• Downtown Toronto continues to have the most expensive one-, two-, and three-bedroom unfurnished units.
• Brampton had the least expensive one- and two-bedroom furnished and unfurnished units.
• Furnished, one-bedroom units were cheaper than unfurnished, one-bedroom units in Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, and Vaughan-Richmond Hill.

Rental averages for other Ontario cities

We’ve explored data from other cities and municipalities in other regions within and surrounding the GTA. For these cities, London is the least expensive city to rent in this January at $1,557 for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit, while Oakville is the most expensive at $2,296.

For complete data on these cities as well as other municipalities outside of the Greater Toronto Area, download our full report here to view the complete report.

Our complete January 2023 Rent Report has information on even more key areas, broken down into region and unit type for a complete overview of rental averages in Ontario. To view these and all the other new information we’ve added, be sure to download your copy of the Rent Report below.

Downloadable resources

Make a splash at your next video meeting and rep the latest rental averages and trends with our custom virtual backgrounds — always free to download. 

Were you looking for the full report? Download it for free here.

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Renting in Ontario

For more information on renting in Ontario, refer to these comprehensive resource posts:

• What’s A Standard Rental Application?
• What do you need when applying for a rental?
• What Can A Landlord Ask For On A Rental Application In Ontario?
• How Do I Fill Out A Rental Application?
• Ontario Standard Lease Explained
• Frequently Asked Questions: Everything You Need to Know About Eviction in Ontario

Data collection methodology

Our monthly rent reports use data from our own liv.rent listings, as well as data our team manually collects from other popular listing sites – looking at available basement suites, apartments, condos, townhouses, semi-detached houses, and single-detached houses for each area.

When collecting this data, we do exclude luxury properties listed at over $5,000, as well as rooms for rent and shared accommodation. Investing in manual data collection means that we only consider the current month’s listing, since we can filter out duplicate listings and older ads that haven’t been removed.

Another key difference between our data collection methods and some government agencies like the CMHC is that we only include current asking rent prices. Many official reports will include data for entire buildings in their reports, which tends to skew numbers lower since many units are already occupied, and may be rent-controlled or rented for significantly lower than the current rates.

As we are a Canadian rental platform founded and based in Vancouver, we want to ensure that we’re providing a completely accurate depiction of the rental market in the cities we look at.

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Subscribe to receive these monthly updates on the Vancouver rental market. Discover last month’s Rent Reports below:

December 2022 Metro Vancouver Rent Report
December 2022 Toronto Rent Report
December 2022 Calgary & Edmonton Rent Report
December 2022 Montreal Rent Report