Average Rent In Toronto Has Reached Over 3K & Many People Are Joking About Giving Up Food
Toronto rent prices are going through the roof! The average rent for purpose-built apartments just skyrocketed to over $3,000 — a record-breaking feat that's never been seen before in the area.
Urbanation, a real estate insights website, has been keeping tabs on the situation and found that rent prices have been climbing for six straight quarters with double-digit year-over-year increases. In other words, it's getting pricey out there.
Many people on Reddit and TikTok were quick to respond to the jaw-dropping new rate, and some started joking about giving up food.
"Just work two jobs, ya peasants and never buy food. It's so easy," one person on Reddit wrote on a thread discussing the subject.
"If you eat in your dreams, it's almost like real food!" another person wrote.
Purpose-built apartments are housing units specifically designed for "long-term rental accommodation," according to the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), and they made up 14% of all the homes in the GTA in October 2021.
In the first quarter of the year, Urbanation found that condo rents jumped a whopping 13.6% year over year to an average of $2,741.
As tenants scramble to find affordable living spaces, the trend seems to be moving towards downsizing, the research found.
One TikToker decided to see how much a Torontonian would be left with at the end of the month, based on their average salary and new rent price, finding that it could leave most people with a monthly deficit of roughly $236.
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But some people took issue with his estimates for food costs in Toronto.
"$350 on food must be only rice 😂," one person wrote. "360 for food!!!! I spend that in a week," another wrote.
Many others expressed despair at how unaffordable housing in Toronto has become.
"It is physically impossible to live by yourself in Toronto. It’s either a romantic partner, roommates or your parents," one person on TikTok commented.
"Honestly, I don’t know where the city is going with this. What the game plan is. Drive everyone out? Make Toronto the new Dubai or Vegas? I don’t understand this at all," a person on Reddit commented.
A chart comparing average home prices, income required for a home purchase and median household income by city. 