Urbanation released its Q3-2021 rental report for the Greater Toronto Area at the beginning of this week. The vacancy rate in purpose-built rental buildings fell to 3.0%. This is down from 5.1% in Q2-2021 and 6.4% in Q1-2021. For the former City of Toronto (the city pre-amalgamation), vacancy rates declined to 3.8% in Q3-2021, down from 9% in Q1-2021. So people are renting apartments.

At the same time, rents are growing. The average rent for newer purpose-built rentals was $2,389 per month or $3.30 per square foot at the end of last quarter. This is up 3.8% from Q2. But what is also interesting to see is how quickly the core / downtown is snapping back. Looking at condominium rentals, the former City of Toronto had the lowest leases-to-listings ratio at the start of the pandemic in Q2-2020. But in Q3 of this year, its ratio was the highest. See below.

Average rents have also spiked for condo rentals in the core, posting an 11.4% quarter-over-quarter increase and a 6.2% year-over-year increase. The average rent is now sitting at $2,405 per month or $3.62 psf. See above. Remember when everyone thought that cities were dead and nobody was ever going to live in a downtown apartment ever again? Yeah, that was funny.

Charts: Urbanation