Understanding Toronto condo rent data
Condo rental headlines can mix together asking rents, rents paid by existing tenants, vacancy figures, sale prices and owners' costs. These figures answer different questions.
Understanding Toronto condo rent data
Condo rental headlines can mix together asking rents, rents paid by existing tenants, vacancy figures, sale prices and owners' costs. These figures answer different questions.
Before relying on a claim, check the source, date, area and type of housing. A change in the mix of homes being advertised can change an average without describing what happened to every renter.
An owner's mortgage cost does not establish whether your rent is lawful or whether a home fits your budget.
Compare similar homes, the full monthly cost and the available evidence. FairRent provides a price estimate with stated limitations. It does not predict future rents, interest rates or property values.
Five figures that are not the same thing
A Toronto condo headline usually rests on one of the figures below. Each one measures something different, covers a different set of homes and is published on a different schedule.
| Figure | What it measures | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Asking rent | The price in a current listing. What a landlord hopes to get, not what a tenant signed for. | Listing sites such as Rentals.ca |
| Average rent paid in purpose-built buildings | Rents paid by tenants in place in purpose-built rental buildings, surveyed in October each year. | CMHC Rental Market Survey |
| Rent in condos owned by individuals | Rents in condominium apartments rented out by their owners, which the main survey does not cover. | CMHC secondary rental market survey |
| Vacancy rate | The share of purpose-built rental units that were vacant and available at survey time. | CMHC Rental Market Survey |
| Renter-reported rent | An amount a renter reports paying. Self-reported, and used only in grouped form. | FairRent rent submissions |
The method notes below say exactly which homes each survey covers and when it was taken.
Questions to ask of any headline
- Which of the five figures is it?
- What period does it cover, and when was it published?
- What geography does it describe: the whole city, a survey zone, or one building?
- Did the mix of homes being advertised change, and would that alone move the average?
- Does it say anything about the home you are looking at? Usually it does not.
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