A new national report shows average apartment rents in Toronto dropped by slightly more than five per cent last year.
Despite the drop, Toronto remains one of the most expensive rental markets in the country, with average rents at $2,503 per month, according to a survey by Rentals.ca.
The study showed that the average price for a one-bedroom unit in Etobicoke is $2,113, and $2,568 for a two-bedroom unit.
Average rent for two-bedroom apartments in Etobicoke decreased by 7.5 per cent in 2025, and by 4.4 per cent in Scarborough, the study found. In North York, the study said rental prices decreased by 3.1 per cent.
In Toronto, average rental prices for a two-bedroom dropped 9.1 per cent, the study showed. Meanwhile, the average rental in Mississauga dropped 8.3 per cent, and Brampton dropped an average 5.7 per cent, according to Rentals.ca.
Annique Gordon, a minimum-wage worker who lives in a two-bedroom unit in Aurora, Ont., said she has not seen any changes in affordability in the Greater Toronto Area, as most of her income continues to go towards rent.
For some, however, dropping average rents offers little relief.
“It’s not really affordable, to be honest, because I only have one job and it’s minimum wage, so a huge chunk of that” goes to rent, Gordon said.
She said she and her roommate pay about $1,000 plus utilities per month.
Aydin Thompson, a first-year broadcast student at Humber Polytechnic, said he has noticed a drop in his month-to-month rent, but not significantly.
“It is it's difficult to, you know, buy groceries and pay for other things like, internet, or phone bill, or like personal hygiene,” he said.
Thompson said Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s proposal to remove rent control is a “terrible idea” because low-income households will not keep their rent-controlled apartments.
Ford’s government passed Bill 60 on Nov. 27, 2025, which aims to dismantle rent control.
The provincial government said in a news release that the bill would cut red tape on building new homes, review the Ontario Building Code and address delays in Landlord and Tenant Board trials.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a renter advocacy group, said the bill cuts tenants' time to pay owed rent to seven days from 14. Under the bill, tenants would lose their right to raise health and safety concerns at their arrears trial unless they pay 50 per cent of the alleged owed rent. Tenants currently have 30 days to ask for a review of a Landlord and Tenant Board order they believe is unjust. Bill 60 would cut this time to 15 days.
Critics of the bill say it favours landlords in a housing crisis.
The advocacy group said the bill would “strip away key tenant protections, fast-track evictions, and open the door to ending rent control as we know it in Ontario.”
High prices are why Michael Bulger said he doesn’t rent and lives at home with his parents.
Bulger, now a first-year Humber game programming student, said he used to rent a house with university roommates nearly a decade ago.
Back then, the 36-year-old said they each paid $400 to $500 a month.
“Imagine paying $500 in rent, like that’s…forget about it. You’d have a lineup of people around the block interested in that,” Bulger said.
High rental prices are why Innocent Abaleke, a first-year Humber practical nursing student, says he doesn’t want to stay in Toronto when he finishes his studies.
“If I’m going to be in Canada in the next 10 years, preferentially I will not choose Toronto, I will choose Vancouver,” Abaleke said.
Abaleke said he prefers to live without roommates and wants a place that offers less crowded living conditions for the price he’s paying.
Parmveer Singh, 19, a second-year business management student at the Niagara College campus in downtown Toronto, said he lives in a one-bedroom basement in Mississauga and pays $1,300 per month, including all utilities.
Rental prices in Mississauga have decreased 9.9 per cent for a one-bedroom, but the city remains among the most expensive, with an average of $2,308 per month for a one-bedroom according to the Rentals.ca survey.
Singh suggested the cost of living is hard to manage on a student budget.
“It’s high for a student, but it’s a piece of mind to live alone than having a burden as per sharing,” Singh said
Justin Kovnjak, 24, a kitchen designer of five years, has lived on his own since 2022, paying $1,650 for his first studio on Jarvis Street, with rent increasing to $1,790 in 2025, and now paying $2,150 for his current one-bedroom on Trinity Street in Toronto.
“It is more than I wish I was paying,” he said.
While on Jarvis, he was looking for new apartments that better suited his lifestyle, but prices were around $2,500 to $2,600, Kovnjak said.
“I was almost ready to swing that somehow, but I was honestly fortunate enough to find this one,” he said.
Julian Mierzejewski, a history major at Toronto Metropolitan University, lives in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom Ontario Housing apartment with his mother in Mississauga. His mother used to pay $1,000, but now pays $1,200 because Julian turned 18.
“They raised the rent on me because I was 18 that wasn’t working a job or a full-time student,” Mierzejewski said.
He finds it hard for him and his mother to make ends meet because of the increased rent.
“Sixty, 70 per cent of my mother's income goes towards the rent. If rent is a bit bad, I will work some small-time gigs to help with sharing the rent,” Mierzejewski said.
Sydni Spooner, 22, a minimum-wage retail worker, rents a two-bedroom in the village of Baxter, Ont., about 25 kilometres southwest of Barrie, with her mother, paying $1,100 a month.
“We were one of the lucky ones,” she said. “When we were looking for a place, pricing was our main issue. Everything was so expensive and out of our price range.”
Rent in Alliston, the nearest town, has gone up 16 per cent in the last year. “It's one of those moments of being disappointed but not surprised,” Spooner said.
June Juan, 24, and their family pay about $2,500 a month for a two-bedroom house in North York.
"My dad pays, like, $1,100," they said. "I add $450. My brothers pay the other $450."
Juan and family migrated to Canada in 2010, and at that time, they said that rent was about $900.
Before coming to Canada, Juan said that their family owned a home in the Philippines, but because of the high household costs in Toronto, are forced to rent.
“The house prices are really high and, yeah, we can't afford it,” Juan said.
Jessica Rajbhandari, a second-year environmental architecture student at OCAD University, while working at Brandy Melville, a clothing store, is in a rare situation, living on Church and Gerrard Streets, and currently pays only $700 a month in a student housing unit.
“Even though my rent is significantly lower than lots of people living downtown, the high cost of living makes it hard to balance paying for rent, getting groceries and still having enough to live,” she said.
Hope Wheatley, a residence service assistant at Humber, lives in an Etobicoke back-split house with a roommate.
Wheatley pays less than $1,000 in rent and said she did not notice a change in the price but hopes the 5.1 per cent decrease will benefit Toronto.
“Every dollar counts,” she said. “Rent is notoriously high in Toronto and Vancouver. A one-bedroom can run you up to $2,500 a month, if not more, so even five per cent less is a small blessing.”
Neveah Clow, 22, a third-year Bachelor of Design student at TMU, lives in a three-bedroom Old Toronto house, in the Queen Street and Spadina Avenue area, with two roommates. She said being able to work a job while going to school is a lifesaver.
“Working while going to school is tough,” she said. “But living here is pricey, so being able to work as a server while in school is a blessing. If I didn’t have a job, I couldn’t afford to live here. My savings could maybe cover two months.”
Priyanshu Gollen, a second-year Pre-Health Science student at Humber who works part-time as a fast-food worker, lives in Brampton, Ont., renting a one-room basement with a friend for about $400 a month.
“I’m a student, I currently work part-time,” the 21-year-old said. “It’s almost 24 hours per week, so most of us can’t afford their rent as well as daily accessories, like groceries, phone bills, and transportation.”
Keyarah Reid, a Media Communications student at Humber, does not pay rent herself but has seen rising housing costs affect her peers. Reid said several of her friends are struggling to afford rent and are relying on OSAP funding due to difficulties finding work.
“They don’t have a job to keep themselves afloat right now, so that’s what they’re relying on,” she said. Reid added that rent prices should be lower, especially for students already facing financial pressure.
Sarthak Suman, 31, a Humber student, rents a one-bedroom apartment near North campus in West Humber Clairville.
He said his rent is around $1,100.
“I guess it was pretty bad before," Suman said. But since the New Year, the price of his apartment has improved.
Suman said that the five per cent drop is "justified."
Wendy Bhagoutie, 56, a GTA property manager, said rental rates for apartments have dropped by hundreds of dollars in some cases.
A Brampton apartment she manages reached as high as $2,800 a month for a two-bedroom, she said.
“It went from really being high to dropping a couple of hundred dollars less,” Bhagoutie said. “Landlords tend to raise their prices, and then all the other landlords just go along with the price increase,” she said. “I've had a lot of good tenants who have been really long-term with me.”
Her long-term tenants in Etobicoke pay around $2,200 a month in rent for two- to three-bedroom houses.
”I can't just jump the rent up by a couple of hundred dollars, right?” she said.
Bhagoutie said she can increase rent yearly, but she usually doesn’t.
“I don't usually do that, because I need my tenants to be able to pay the rent, and I don't want to make it difficult so that they can't live,” she said.
After having trouble with tenants who neglect property upkeep and getting them removed, she's decided that landlords could use more support when situations like this occur.
“As landlords, I feel we don't have a lot of rights, and it's a long process to get a tenant out of your property,” Bhagoutie said.
Cassie Karen Bassey, a second-year business marketing student, said she's seen a drop in asking rents. She said she is paying $750 for a room in a house in Etobicoke, which she shares with eight other people.
"I'll say it dropped ever so slightly because I used to pay for another room for $950. However, I'll say space-wise, it's still the same because although you're getting it cheaper, it's still smaller spaces for that price," she said.
This story was compiled by the first-year students of Humber Polytechnic's Advanced Journalism Diploma. They include files by Kayleigh Ainsworth, Maliah Andall, Peter Bhagoutie, Jameilia Clarke, Simon De Cicco, Christian Lanzillotto, Tyson Lauzon, Grace MacInerney, Thomas McKenzie, Jo McRae, Sarah Nyikako, Jordan Pestana Dos Santos, Andrzej Wisniewski, Donnie Xeng Ngo, Maryan Yalda, Kasey Young.
