Article content
Still very high but not growing as fast.
After years of rapid increases, rents in Ontario went down for the first time in more than a year, while London experienced some of the smallest increases in recent memory, according to the latest rental market report by Urbanation and Rentals.ca.
Though asking rents in Canada rose by seven per cent in June, Ontario rents for purpose-built and condominium apartments went down by 1.3 per cent, sitting now at $2,382 and making Ontario the only province to record an annual rent decline.
Article content
Locally, one-bedroom apartments in the city were renting for $1,772 in June. That’s a month-over-month decrease of 0.6 per cent while an annual increase of only one per cent.
Similarly, the asking rent for two-bedroom units in London went down by 0.5 per cent in June from May, growing over the past year by 3.4 per cent and sitting at $2,158.
“It’s important to keep in mind that demand is still really strong, and rents are still up in this country . . . but it’s just where they’re going up,” said Rentals.ca’s Giacomo Ladas.
“People are going for areas in search of more affordable rents, and because of that, it’s driving up rents in different parts of the county at a much faster rate. Alberta, Atlantic Canada, Saskatoon, are seeing 20 to 25 per cent increases. So, it’s really becoming an affordability story as opposed to an accessibility one.”
It’s one of the reasons why London’s rents, while they have stabilized, continue to go up, Ladas said.
Though the overall provincial decline was led by rents dropping in larger centres such as Toronto and Burlington, smaller markets such as London are still absorbing some demand from people leaving some of the province’s most expensive markets.
A one-bedroom in Toronto is renting for $2,444 a month, about $672 more expensive than in London.
“It’s really, really important that we keep a foot on the gas pedal and build more housing,” Ladas said.
“But what we think needs to happen is a shift to begin building more in secondary markets faster, because that’s where consumer demands are quickly shifting.”
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
