Your guide to renting and buying in the Greater Toronto Area. The rules here are specific, and some of them will surprise you. Everything you need is on this page.
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Prices peaked in early 2022 and have come down a long way since. Averages for the whole Greater Toronto Area, in Canadian dollars.
— below the February 2022 peak of —
Townhouse, semi or detached
— below the February 2022 peak of —
You do not have to start at the average. Freehold townhouses across the GTA average —, and plenty of condos trade well under the figure above. The range here is wide, which is the part that surprises people.
A freehold home outside Toronto averages — less than the same category inside the city. That is most of a down payment.
And the dollar is on your side. One Canadian dollar costs about —, so a — home is roughly — in US dollars. Money coming from abroad converts into more house here than it did a few years ago.
Semis and townhouses sit between the two. Figures as at —. Sources: TRREB Market Watch, February 2022 and current, and the Bank of Canada.
Hover any card for the detail. On a phone, tap it.
This decides whether you can buy at all. Not everyone can right now.
Citizens and permanent residents: no restriction. Buy like anyone else.
Everyone else: a federal ban is in force until 1 January 2027 on buying residential property in cities, and the whole GTA is covered.
Work permit: you can buy one home if your permit has 183 or more days left on closing day. That date is the one that counts, not the day you make the offer.
Study permit: possible, but the bar is high. Five years of study, tax filings and presence here, and a price under $500,000.
Married to a citizen or PR? You can buy together.
Buying when you are not allowed to carries a fine and the court can order the home sold. Confirm your own situation before you make an offer.
If you are not a citizen or PR, Ontario adds 25% on top. Most people have not heard of it.
It is called the Non-Resident Speculation Tax. On an $800,000 home that is $200,000, on top of the regular land transfer taxes.
The trap: if even one buyer on the deal is a foreign national, it applies to the whole price, not their share. A citizen buying with a foreign-national partner pays it on all of it.
Spouses are exempt. If you are the spouse of a citizen or PR and buying together, you do not pay it.
You can get it back. Become a permanent resident within four years of closing and you can apply for a full rebate.
No Canadian income is fine. Where the money sits, and for how long, is what matters.
Get it into Canada early. Banks want to see funds sitting in a Canadian account for about 90 days before closing. Money that lands the week before raises questions and slows everything down.
Selling something overseas? Keep the paper trail: the sale agreement, the bank statements, the transfer records. Proving where money came from is the single most common reason a newcomer file stalls.
Paying cash is fine and it is common. You still have to show the source.
Wire it, do not carry it. A clean electronic trail from a named account in your name is what a lender and a lawyer need to see.
No Canadian credit history is normal. There are programs built for exactly this.
Start a credit file on day one. A basic credit card used and paid off monthly begins building the history a lender will want.
Newcomer mortgage programs exist. Most major lenders have them, designed for people with no Canadian credit but real income or real savings.
Expect a larger down payment. Without Canadian credit or income, lenders commonly ask for considerably more than the 5% minimum. A broker will tell you where you stand before you start looking.
Bring the documents. Employment letter, proof of funds, and any credit report from your home country. It will not be scored here, but it shows a history of paying on time.
General information, current as at September 2026, not legal or tax advice. Mo Realty Team are licensed realtors, not lawyers or immigration consultants. The federal rules and the Ontario tax both have details that depend on your exact situation, so confirm yours with a real estate lawyer before you make an offer. Sources: the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act and Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax.
Some of it is timing. Most of it is not.
Prices peaked in 2022 and have come down since. Buyers today have choice, time, and room to negotiate, which is the opposite of what this market was five years ago.
The Canadian dollar is weak against most major currencies. If your money is coming from abroad, it converts into more house here than it did a few years ago.
Property here is held in your name in Ontario's land registry, and the province stands behind that title. There is no separate class of ownership for foreign owners.
Toronto is Canada's largest job market and the country's main landing place for people arriving from abroad. Hospitals, universities, banks and transit are all here, and none of that moves.
The straightforward version: buy something with two units, rent both, and let the rent carry the mortgage.
Two units, two cheques. A main floor and a legal second suite, or a purpose-built duplex. One property, two households paying rent.
It is the difference that matters. A single condo at today's prices usually costs you money every month. A second rent is what flips it.
The suite has to be legal. That is the part people get wrong. An unregistered basement apartment can be ordered closed, and the rent disappears with it. I check this before you offer.
Pre-filled with a duplex we rented out recently: bought at $850,000, renting for $5,000 a month. Change any number.
Every dollar of rent, split. Mortgage assumes — over 25 years.
This is an estimate, not an underwriting. It leaves out vacancy, repairs, land transfer tax and closing costs. Send me a specific address and I will show you the real comparable rents, the actual carrying cost, and what it takes to break even.
Fifteen minutes on the phone will tell you whether you can buy now, what it would cost you in tax, and what a lender would say. Better to know that before you fall in love with a place.
Ask Mo about buying
One minute on how the GTA rental market actually works right now, and what a landlord is looking at when they read your application.
Until then, the rest of this page covers the same ground in writing.
One minute. No sign-up, no email required.
Nobody just applies and moves in. A good unit is a competition, and the landlord picks the application that looks safest to them.
Ready to apply? Upload your documents
A good unit in the GTA can draw several applications the same day. Landlords are cautious, and the one with the strongest file usually wins. Newcomers are rarely turned down for being new. They are turned down for a thin file.
Credit, income, and evidence you have paid on time before. A landlord is answering one question: will the rent arrive every month. Everything else in your application is secondary to that.
It is the single most common obstacle, and it is solvable. A guarantor, savings in the bank, an employment letter, a credit report from your home country. The section below covers each one.
Ontario uses the Standard Lease, Form 2229E. Extra terms go in section 15, so read it closely. Any clause that conflicts with the law is void, even after you have signed it.
First month's rent plus a last month's rent deposit is the legal maximum. Damage deposits, security deposits, pet deposits and cleaning deposits are all illegal in Ontario.
There are legitimate ways around it, and there are things you should refuse. Tap any row to open it.
A co-signer, sometimes called a guarantor, is someone already established in Canada with good income and good credit who signs the lease alongside you and becomes legally responsible if the rent is not paid. For a landlord looking at a thin file, this answers almost every concern at once.
Bring their information with you, not after the fact: their employment letter, proof of income and consent to a credit check, prepared the same way as your own. An application that arrives complete for both of you is far stronger than one that promises a guarantor later.
Ask early, and be honest with them about what they are agreeing to. It is a real financial commitment, not a formality.
A credit score exists to answer one question: will this person pay. A bank statement showing several months of rent sitting in an account answers it directly. Bring that, plus an employment letter confirming your role, your salary and that the job is ongoing.
If you have a credit report from your home country, bring that too. It will not be scored here, but it shows a history of meeting obligations and it shows you came prepared.
Under sections 105 and 106 of the Residential Tenancies Act, a landlord cannot require more than a last month's rent deposit. Demanding six or twelve months upfront as a condition of renting to you is not lawful.
A tenant who voluntarily offers to prepay may do so, and a genuine voluntary prepayment has been treated as a credit against future rent rather than an illegal deposit. So it is a legitimate way to strengthen a thin file.
A landlord cannot refuse you because of your citizenship, your place of origin, your ethnic background, your religion, your family status, or because you receive public assistance. These are protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
They also cannot charge a damage deposit, a security deposit, a pet deposit or a cleaning deposit, and a “no pets” clause is void under section 14 of the Act. You never need to give anyone your Social Insurance Number to rent a home.
Nearly all of them trace back to something that was never written down.
If the landlord says they will repaint, replace the fridge, or allow a parking spot, it goes in section 15 in writing. A verbal promise is worth very little at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
If you ever need to show that you reported a problem and nothing happened, you will need a dated record. Email gives you one automatically.
Every room, every existing mark, and every meter reading. It takes ten minutes and it settles almost every argument about damage when you leave.
Reporting starts the clock on the landlord's legal duty to repair, and it protects you from being blamed later for an unauthorised alteration.
Answer these and you will get a formatted PDF you can attach to any rental application, so a landlord sees a complete, organised file instead of a blank one. Takes about three minutes.
We only ask what a landlord legitimately needs. We never ask for your Social Insurance Number, your immigration status, or where you are from.
The more specific you are, the better we can match you and the stronger your application looks.
This is what a landlord is really assessing. If you have not started work yet, say so and mention your offer letter.
These are the things that turn a thin file into an accepted one. Be honest — a landlord will verify.
We can view it with you, check the lease before you sign, and tell you honestly whether the rent is fair for that area. There is no cost to you as a tenant.
Talk to Mo