Rents flat across Canada but declining in Oshawa and Ajax

Asking rent for all residential properties in Canada rents declined 3.3 per cent – the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year decreases – following a record high of $2,202 in May 2024.

The price drop was especially acute for two-bedroom units in Durham Region, with rents in Oshawa falling 6.6 per cent and 3.2 per cent in Ajax to $2,077 and $2,160, respectively.

Month-to-month prices are still lower than April this year for two-bedroom rentals, with the average cost down 1.8 per cent in Ajax and 3.8 per cent in Oshawa.

One-bedroom units are actually up in both communities from last month – 3.4 per cent to $2,103 in Ajax and 1.1 per cent to $1,729 in Oshawa – but the two towns diverge in year-over-year prices, with Ajax rentals up 7.8 per cent for one-bedroom units and Oshawa down five per cent.

Average rental prices across the country reached $2,129 in May, holding steady from April with only a 0.1 per cent monthly increase, according to the latest National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.

“The easing in rents this year across most parts of the country is a positive for housing affordability in Canada following a period of extremely strong rent inflation lasting from 2022 to 2024,” said Urbanization President Shaun Hildebrand. “Rents have recently been impacted by the combination of a surge in supply from new apartment completions, as well as a slowdown in population growth and a heightened level of economic uncertainty.”

Despite the year-over-year decline, average asking rents remain 5.7 per cent higher than two years ago and 12.6 per cent above levels from three years ago. Over the past five years, rents in Canada have increased by an average of 4.1 per cent annually, outpacing average wage growth of roughly three per cent.

This indicates, the report declared, that rental affordability has worsened overall since COVID-19, despite recent softening in rents.

Among Canada’s largest cities, Calgary experienced the steepest annual decline in apartment rents (-7.9 per cent to $1,928), followed by Toronto (-6.8 per cent to $2,594), Vancouver (-5.9 per cent to $2,830), and Montreal (-3.3 per cent to $1,970). Ottawa was the only city to record annual rent growth across all unit types.

Vancouver and its suburbs were the four most expensive cities in Canada to rent, led by North Vancouver ($2,620 for one-bedroom units and $3,578 for two-bedrooms), followed by Vancouver, Burnaby and Coquitlam.

Toronto was fifth, with average rents for one-bedroom apartments at $2,302 and at $2,933 for two-bedrooms.

Ajax ranked 14^th and Oshawa 34^th among the 60 cities analyzed.

The National Rent Report charts and analyzes monthly, quarterly and annual trends in the rental market at national, provincial, and municipal levels using listings from the Rentals.ca Network. The data is analyzed and the report is prepared by Urbanation, a Toronto-based real estate research firm founded in 1981.