The strength of the economy and labour market in the Greater Toronto Area is boosting rental activity.
Toronto Real Estate Board reports a 14.9% year-over-year increase in condo apartment rental transaction in the second quarter of 2019 to a total of 9,749.
Supply eased with a 28.8% increase in condo apartments that were listed for rental at some point in Q2 2019.
“The GTA population continues to trend upward, as the region attracts people from around the world, both on a permanent and temporary basis, to take advantage of a diversity of employment opportunities. Many of these newcomers and existing GTA households choose to rent. With this in mind it makes sense that we continue to see strong year-over-year increases in the number of condominium apartments rented,” said TREB president Michael Collins.
Pace of rent rises slows
Rents increased but the pace of growth slowed with the average Q2 2019 one-bedroom condominium apartment rent for the GTA as a whole at $2,192, up 6.7% compared to Q2 2018. Over the same period, the average two-bedroom condominium apartment rent increased by 4.3% to $2,873.
“While the rental market remains tight, renters do appear to be benefitting from more supply in the marketplace. The pace of year-over-year average rent growth has slowed over the past year. That being said, average condo rents continued to increase well-above the rate of inflation in the second quarter. This suggests that new rental supply, in terms of both purpose-built rental units and investor-owned condominium apartments, is still required in the GTA to keep up with population growth and new household formation,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.