Canada's Rent Slide Is Finally Stalling — What It Means If You Rent or Rent Out

 

Published August 13, 2026

For nearly two years, "Canadian rents are falling" has been one of the safest headlines in personal finance. The August 2026 National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation, released last week, suggests that streak may finally be running out of road — and the shift matters whether you're the one paying rent or the one collecting it.

The Numbers

National avg. asking rent (July)	$2,037
Year-over-year change	-4.0% (22nd straight monthly decline)
Month-over-month change	+0.2% (4th straight monthly rise)
Toronto, month-over-month	+1.6% to $2,577

Falling, But Not as Fast

Rent is still dropping on a year-over-year basis nationally — that's now been true for 22 straight months. But the pace of the decline has been easing since it bottomed out in March, and July marked the smallest annual drop since February. On a month-to-month basis, rent has now risen for four months running, which typically happens every summer as the market hits its seasonal peak. This year's summer bump has been more muted than usual, and Urbanation's president has characterized the market as stabilizing but not yet in recovery.

Zoom out and the bigger picture is still renter-friendly: rents have fallen 7.5% over the past two years, to their lowest July level since 2022. The average unit on the market today is also smaller than it used to be — 831 square feet, down from 879 two years ago — so even flat-looking price-per-square-foot numbers mask some quiet downsizing in what's available.

Toronto Is Suddenly the Best-Performing Big Market

The most notable shift is right in our backyard. Toronto rents jumped 1.6% from June to July — the largest monthly gain of any of Canada's six biggest markets — landing at $2,577. Year-over-year, Toronto rents are down just 0.6%, the smallest annual decline of the group, after more than two years of steeper losses. Three-bedroom units in the city are actually up 3.9% annually.

The reason appears to be supply, not just demand: Toronto listings were down roughly 6% year-over-year, as fewer new condos hit the rental market and pent-up demand gets absorbed now that the market looks more affordable than it did a year ago.

Here's the catch: that turnaround stops at the city limits. Brampton, Mississauga, Oakville and Oshawa are all still posting annual rent declines north of 7%. If you're house-hunting for a rental in the GTA, the "Toronto is bouncing back" story doesn't yet apply once you cross into the 905.

Ontario, Province-Wide

Ontario posted a 0.8% month-over-month increase in apartment and condo rents in July — the largest gain of any province, and the third straight monthly increase since the province hit a 46-month low back in April. Year-over-year, Ontario rents are still down 3.7%, and looking back three years, Ontario is one of only two provinces (alongside B.C.) where rent is actually lower today than it was in mid-2023, down 7.9% over that stretch.

Three-bedroom units in Ontario are close to flat annually, down just 0.9% to an average of $3,056 — another sign that larger-unit demand is holding up better than the studio and one-bedroom segment.

What It Means If You're Renting

You're still in a renter's market nationally, but the easiest savings are shrinking. Condo units remain your best bet for a deal — condo rents overall are down 6.3% annually, with studio condos down a steep 9.6% — so a smaller unit in a condo building will get you the most negotiating room right now. If you're specifically looking in Toronto proper, expect less room to negotiate than a year ago; the deals have shifted to the surrounding 905 suburbs, where declines are still in the high single digits.

What It Means If You're a Landlord

Four straight months of increases is the first real evidence the market may have found a floor, but "stabilizing" is doing a lot of work in that sentence — annual rents are still negative almost everywhere outside Nova Scotia and Manitoba. If you own a purpose-built rental, you've been more insulated than condo-investor landlords: purpose-built rents are down just 2.6% annually versus a 6.3% drop for condos, and purpose-built three-bedrooms are essentially flat. If your unit is a condo, especially a studio or one-bedroom, temper renewal expectations — that segment is still absorbing the steepest declines. For anyone weighing a new purchase for a rental in the GTA, the data suggests Toronto proper is a materially different bet right now than Brampton, Mississauga or Oshawa, where rent softness — and the pressure that puts on cash flow versus mortgage costs — still has further to run.

The Rest of the Country

Nova Scotia held its title as the country's most expensive province for apartment and condo rents for a third straight month, at $2,377, narrowly ahead of B.C. at $2,357 — though Nova Scotia's average is skewed up by a heavy mix of new-build, larger units. Alberta and B.C. posted the steepest annual declines among provinces, both down over 4%, while Saskatchewan and Manitoba — the two provinces that led rent growth over the past year — actually slipped month-over-month, a possible early sign that interprovincial migration into those cheaper markets is starting to cool as other regions become more affordable by comparison.

At the city level, North Vancouver remains the single most expensive rental market in the country outside the top six, and Dartmouth, N.S. posted the largest annual rent increase nationally at 13.1%. On the affordability end, Fort McMurray, Medicine Hat and Lloydminster — all in Alberta — remain the cheapest large markets to rent in Canada.

Bottom Line

This isn't a market that's turned around — it's a market where the freefall has slowed and, in Toronto specifically, may have reversed. Renters nationally still have the upper hand, but it's weakening a little more each month, and where you're searching now matters more than it did a year ago. Landlords who rode out two rough years are seeing the first real light, but the recovery is uneven enough that what's true for a purpose-built unit in downtown Toronto isn't true for a condo in Oshawa. Worth watching: Rentals.ca and Urbanation publish this report monthly, so the September data (covering August) should show whether July's four-month climb was a genuine seasonal peak or the start of something more durable.

Source: Rentals.ca & Urbanation, August 2026 National Rent Report (published August 6, 2026, covering July 2026 data).