Toronto renters are facing a harsh reality: even with a slight drop in average rents, the cost of housing in Canada’s largest city remains far out of reach for many workers.

A new report, Making Rent: The CCPA’s Rental Wage Update 2024, released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, highlights just how unaffordable Toronto has become. The study calculates the “rental wage”—the hourly pay needed to afford rent while working full-time and spending no more than 30 per cent of income on housing.

For Toronto (and Vancouver), that figure is staggering: nearly $38 per hour, or about $78,000 annually, just to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. For a two-bedroom unit, the number climbs even higher.

By contrast, Ontario’s minimum wage is $17.20 per hour, set to rise slightly to $17.60 in October—less than half of what’s needed to comfortably rent in the city. “For those earning minimum wage, it is virtually impossible to afford housing on their own,” the report states.

The Numbers Behind the Crisis

• Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto (Q2 2025): $2,326/month (down 5.1% year-over-year).

• Annual cost: $27,912.

• Minimum wage salary (full-time): ~$33,000/year.

• Rental wage for vacant units in Toronto: $41.73/hour for a one-bedroom, $51.73/hour for a two-bedroom.

A Canada-Wide Problem

While Toronto and Vancouver top the list for unaffordability, the issue is widespread. Of the 62 Canadian cities studied, only eight had one-bedroom apartments affordable on a minimum wage salary. Quebec emerged as the most affordable province, with six of those cities located there.

Some Hope on the Horizon?

The report does note that vacancy rates are beginning to rise in major cities, reflecting slower population growth and a wave of new rental supply. Many newly built condos are expected to enter the rental market in 2025 and 2026 as investors back out of pre-sale deals amid higher costs.

Still, affordability is expected to remain a long-term challenge. The report emphasizes the need for stronger rent protections, more non-market and publicly owned housing, and tighter restrictions on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) that buy up affordable rental buildings.

It also points to wage policy as a key solution:

“Minimum wage increases are a key dimension of affordability. Because of the variation within provinces, minimum wage policies could allow for cities to have higher minimum wages better linked to the cost of housing.”

What’s Next?

The message is clear: without bold action on wages, housing supply, and rent controls, Toronto’s affordability crisis will only deepen.

So we’ll ask: Are you struggling to find an affordable apartment in Toronto? Have high rents made you consider leaving the city altogether?