3 months’ free rent, gifts lure tenants as market shifts in Ontario

Giveaways and incentives entice renters to choose new places to live in southern Ontario these days, but will these deals last?

In a reversal from a few years ago when renters in the GTA struggled to find a place as rents soared, these days a potential tenant can net anything from three months’ free rent to gym memberships to free Wi-Fi for a year.

A quick look on Zumper.ca finds over 100 apartment buildings offering move-in specials in Mississauga right now, and over 1,500 in Toronto.

On rentals.ca, new renters can find one year of free Wi-Fi at 4235 Confederation Pkwy. on some apartments ranging from $1,800 to $3,945 rent. At Brightstone, a building at 6570 Glen Erin Dr. in Mississauga, renters can get up to two months’ free rent plus a $1,500 move-in bonus on some apartments ranging from $2,505 to $3,530 rent.

Renters typically must commit to a lease and not all apartments are offered in these deals.

Giacomo Ladas, associate director, communications for Rentals.ca, said these offers are a sign of the times.

“When it is a renter’s market, typically, the property managers and developers have to work harder to get a renter’s attention,” Ladas told INsauga.com. “And what’s happened in the last year or so is we saw a record number of new supply coming to the market.”

Rents dropped in the first years of the pandemic reaching a low average asking price across Canada of around $1,700 in January 2021.

But then prices shot up — reaching highs of around $2,200 in 2024. People stood in long lines for a chance at a good apartment. While there had been giveaways in the past to entice new renters, that wasn’t needed anymore.

“People were just flooding to find any open unit,” Ladas said. “Demand shot up so high and supply became so low that these move-in incentives evaporated because there was no need to try to entice renters to come in.”

Now rents are on the way down.

In the last few months, rents declined to an average of $2,100 January or down 4.4 per cent compared to a year ago to reach an 18-month low, according to the last rent report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.

Ontario rents declined 5.2 per cent annually to an average of $2,329 in January.

With more choices out there, rents are down and landlords need to get tenants.

“They really have to work a lot harder to get people’s attention to their buildings,” said Ladas.

Ladas noted that the incentives tend to be for the least popular type of apartments right now— one- and two-bedroom units.

Studios are really popular because they’re the cheapest unit, and three-bedrooms are a good option for roommates who can split the rent and also families. For people working from home, the extra room can be used as a home office.

“So we’re seeing studio and three beds really increasing demand across our sites,” Ladas said.

Despite recent decreases in prices, rents are still much higher than they were pre-pandemic. It’s good to see prices come down for renters but they are still too high, Ladas said.

“It’s already an inflated market,” he said.

In the coming months, Ladas doesn’t expect much change in the rental market.

“In the short term, I think you will see this continue because we are going to still see some new apartment completions coming to the market,” he said.

The rental market is impacted by several factors including supply, economy, interest rates, population and immigration. High borrowing costs have impacted supply because there are fewer new units getting built in the last few years, he said.

“The current slowdown in construction work restricts supply,” he added.

Without new, purpose-built rentals coming into the market, these rent incentives may not last.

“There’s still a long-term under-supply of rental units across this country,” Ladas said.

Lead photo: cottonbro studio