You Now Need To Make $50K Per Year To Afford Rent For A Studio Apartment In Toronto

It's a well-known fact that rent is expensive in Toronto, but you may not know just how much money you need to get by in the big city.

According to rent data provided to Narcity by Bullpen Research & Consulting and Rentals.ca, bachelor rentals in Toronto and the GTA were $1,458 per month on average in June 2021. Studio condos were roughly $1,553 per month, and studio rental apartments were about $1,439.

The average size of a studio apartment in Canada is 459 square feet, Rentals.ca reported in early 2019.

"The general rule of thumb is that 30 to 35% is about the maximum that should be spent on your shelter costs in terms of your rent," said Bullpen President Ben Myers to Narcity in an interview. "But, for some people, that's just absolutely not achievable."

With this in mind, one would need to make $49,988.57 per year, before taxes, to afford the average studio apartment in Toronto.

An "inevitable" trend in Toronto's rental market

"We have extreme demand in this marketplace […] and we're not building enough housing to satisfy that demand level," said Myers.

"As we continue to undersupply the marketplace, the market is only going to serve the people with the higher incomes. It's going to get to the point where someone making $50 or $60,000 a year can't afford a small studio apartment. That's inevitable."

"Despite all of the cranes that you see, developers are only allowed to build high rises in certain pockets of the GTA. If you can't build up and you can't build cheaper apartments in those areas, we're going to just continue to see pretty high rent growth."

Cover photo was used for illustrative purposes only.