According to the latest data on the state of the rental market in Toronto and the rest of the GTA, the region has seen a solid year of steadily declining rent prices as condo units continue to free up amid the health crisis.

Average rent prices, from the Toronto GTA December Rent Report.

A confluence of factors have led to the trend, including stricter operating rules for Airbnbs and bans on short-term vacation rentals implemented at points this year, a forthcoming vacant home tax, and an exodus of people from urban centres as working from home and shutdowns make living in the city and paying city prices less necessary and certainly less appealing.

Once the most expensive city in Canada for tenants, Toronto rent prices were, per the numbers from TorontoRentals.com and Bullpen Research & Consulting's latest GTA Rent Report, nearly 20 per cent lower in November 2020 than they were in the same month of last year, averaging $2,066 for all property types in the downtown core, $2,006 in Etobicoke, $1,861 in East York and $1,860 in Scarborough.

Average rent prices in different GTA communities. Chart courtesy of the Toronto GTA December Rent Report.

The GTA as a whole saw rent prices hit an average figure that is 16 per cent less than November, with the suburbs around Toronto proper seeing a slightly less significant drop, though drastic nonetheless.

The biggest difference is in, unsurprisingly, condo units, especially one bedrooms: condo apartment rents fell 17.7 per cent from Nov. 2019 to Nov. 2020, followed by rental apartments, which fell 9.1 per cent, and single-family homes, which fell 8 per cent in price.

The differences in the cost of renting different home types in the GTA last year vs. this year. Chart from the Toronto GTA December Rent Report.

With a glut of condos flooding the market in recent months, investors have been scrambling to sell them off and sales prices have diminished when they manage to do so.

But, experts say that condo prices in Toronto will start heating up again, along with all other housing types, pretty early next year. Sales volumes and prices for homes in general in the city, condos aside, have continued to skyrocket further into the territory of unattainable the entire pandemic.

Year-over-year changes in rent prices based on unit size. Chart from the Toronto GTA December Rent Repor.

Thankfully for tenants in the GTA, this latest report indicates that rent prices will actually continue to decline during the first half of 2021, after which they will rise "modestly" and spike in 2022.