Montreal Rent Is Up Again But Not Nearly As Much As For Those Suckers In Toronto

Landlords were asking for an average of $1,544 in rent for one-bedroom Montreal apartments in November, up 0.7% in the last month and 2.9% in the last 12 months, according to the latest rent report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation. Other Canadian cities have fared far worse. Montreal was only the 25th most expensive market in the country.

Cities in Ontario make up the bulk of the list's top spots. Provincewide, listed rents for one-bedroom units have increased by a whopping 17.7% year-over-year, compared to only 3.3% in Quebec, the report states.

Toronto unsurprisingly comes in second place nationwide, with an average rent of $2,478 among one-bedroom listings on Rentals.ca in November, an increase of 23.7% since November 2021. It's second only to Vancouver, which had an average one-bedroom rent of $2,576 (up 17.2%).

Burlington ($2,174 for a one-bedroom), Oakville ($2,098), Mississauga ($2,091), Guelph ($2,085), Brampton ($2,052), Ottawa ($1,959), Kitchener ($1,917), Barrie ($1,877), London ($1,818) and Hamilton ($1,749) all also figured onto the Rentals.ca ranking of the top 20 most expensive markets in the country in November.

Graph showing changes in listed rents for apartments in Canada's largest rental markets (Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton) from October 2019 to October 2022.Courtesy of Rentals.ca

Quebec's urban centres seem to have resisted exorbitant rent increases. Gatineau ($1,630), Laval ($1,359) and Quebec City ($1,175) ranked alongside Montreal as the 24th, 27th and 29th most expensive markets for one-bedroom units in November.

The average listed rent for a two-bedroom unit was $1,764 in Gatineau, $1,986 in Montreal, $1,853 in Laval and $1,421 in Quebec City.