Maeve Ellis had given up on finding an apartment with friends while studying at the University of Toronto for the past couple of years.
The experience was so bad that she decided to live with her parents, who luckily reside in Toronto, for the following two years. “What we’re seeing right now is rents in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver are actually declining – Toronto for five months and Vancouver for seven months,” said Giacomo Ladas, a spokesperson with Rentals.ca, who said rents were now at a 22-month low in Toronto.
The rates in Toronto are now closer to prepandemic levels, when the average one-bedroom unit was $2,315 in February, 2020. However, rates are still much higher in Vancouver, where the average one-bedroom in February, 2020, was listed at $1,882. “At newer buildings, a lot of landlords will accept students because they really want to fill the units,” said Mr. Bahl, who added that some owners are facing mortgage costs and condo fees above $4,000 a month.Mr. Ladas added that there are many buyers in major cities that have been waiting for interest rates to drop, and recent consecutive rate drops by the Bank of Canada could finally bring some buyers off the sidelines.