The Greater Toronto Area builds a lot more condominiums than purpose-built rental units. This isn't the case everywhere though. I was recently reading an article about Salt Lake City and how developers there don't want to build condominiums. It's mostly rental housing. There's simply too much risk and liability with condominiums. I guess this is one of the reasons why real estate is often said to be a local business.

In any event, because of this dynamic in Toronto, condominium rentals are often used to measure the health of the overall rental market. There are simply more recent comparables to point to when you're trying to figure out what is "market." The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board recently published its Q2-2021 rental market report and here is what they found when it comes to condominium apartment rental transactions in the Greater Toronto Area:

Q2-2021 - 14,920 transactions

Q1-2021 - 13,168 transactions

Q2-2020 - 7,300 transactions

What this report tells us is that rental demand is returning. Transactions and rents are up compared to the first quarter of this year and certainly compared to Q2 of last year (2020), which was the low point of this pandemic. We are not yet back to where we were in Q1-2020 when the city was firing on all cylinders, but I have no doubt that we will get there and ultimately surpass those figures.

For the full rental market report, click here.

Photo by Narciso Arellano on Unsplash