City of Toronto · Ontario · Canada · Prices July 2026, rents October 2025

Toronto charges the land transfer tax twice, and assesses on 2016 values

Toronto is six municipalities that were merged in 1998 and still argue about it, 2.8 million people over 630 km², and one market that has quietly become two. In July 2026 the City's detached benchmark was $1,455,200 and its apartment benchmark $551,900, and over the previous year the first fell 4.4% while the second fell 7.1%. In the district around the Annex that gap runs from 2.2% to 14.7%. These are 24 neighbourhood guides, six in each of the City's four community council areas, with the arithmetic of buying here worked out alongside, including the land transfer tax this city charges twice.

Neighbourhood guides

630 km²

City of Toronto land area

3.0%

Rental vacancy, Oct 2025

$928,200

Benchmark home, July 2026

$2,045

Two-bedroom rent

0.57%

Property tax on market value, 2026

Photograph: The skyline from the lake · Erik Drost · CC BY 4.0 · source

What everyday life costs

Living in Toronto

What the household next door earns, what the government takes, how people get to work and what the two ends of the year feel like. Every figure below is the one the comparison pages run on, with the year it describes where the source publishes one, and anything the source does not publish is left out rather than guessed.

$84,000

Median household income, 2020

$21,200

Income tax on $100,000

13%

Sales tax

26.2%

Commute by transit, 2021

-5.0 °C

January mean

22.1 °C

July mean

Property tax is the cost that varies most from one address to the next, and the rate in the tiles above is this municipality's alone. Toronto metro puts what every town around Toronto actually charges on a single table, alongside the exemptions and caps that change what an owner pays.

01: Work out the money

The cost of living in Toronto, and what a home costs

Two calculators on Ontario's own rules: semi-annual compounding and the real minimum down payment tiers, and the closing costs this province actually charges.

The question worth answering first

Rent or buy in Toronto

Whether buying beats renting in a market where the composite benchmark has fallen for a year, apartments have fallen twice as fast as houses, and getting in costs two land transfer taxes. Both households start with the same cash and whichever of them has the cheaper month invests the difference, so the comparison is not rigged in either direction.

Work out your break-even

Canadian math, and Toronto's own tax

Mortgage calculator

Semi-annual compounding, every payment frequency including the accelerated ones, the CMHC premium your down payment triggers, Ontario's 8% sales tax on that premium, and the municipal land transfer tax that doubles the cost of closing in this city and nowhere else in the province.

Land transfer tax, both

Work out your payment

02: Work out where

Then find where in it to live

The neighbourhood index groups Toronto by community council area: the one grouping on this site that is statutory rather than editorial, since the City of Toronto Act provides for community councils and council has established four of them. Every guide keeps sourced facts apart from editorial observation, credits its photographs, and dates what it claims.

The full index

24 neighbourhood guides

One in each community council area, each with sourced facts, schools, parks, amenities, drive times, its own TRREB district benchmark, and an honest account of the trade-offs.

Browse every neighbourhood

How the city divides

The four community council areas

Toronto and East York, North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke York. Unlike every other grouping on this site, these are not ours: they are statutory, they have councils that decide local planning, and since 2025 they no longer all have the same zoning permissions.

Compare the four areas

Outside the city limits

The 24 municipalities around Toronto

Mississauga to Brock, Oakville to Oshawa: every municipality in Durham, Halton, Peel and York on one comparable footing. What each publishes as its tax rate, what that really works out to once Ontario's frozen 2016 assessment is undone, and the fact that none of them charges the second land transfer tax this city does.

Compare the region

Photographs: The Annex by Alain Rouiller, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Mimico Waterfront Park, Toronto 2026 by Chicken4War, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

By community council areaThe old city and East York North York Scarborough Etobicoke and York

Before the arithmetic

What buying in Toronto actually involves

Toronto charges its own municipal land transfer tax on top of the provincial one, which effectively doubles the largest single closing cost of buying here. It is charged on the purchase price on a sliding scale, first-time buyers get a partial rebate on each, and no other municipality in Ontario levies it. Anyone comparing a Toronto purchase against one in Mississauga or Durham has to put that number in the comparison.

The assessment behind every Ontario tax bill is still frozen at January 2016 values, and Toronto's prices have moved a long way since. The practical effect is that the city's published rate, which is among the lowest in the province, understates nothing and overstates nothing on its own: only the effective rate against what a house costs today is comparable with another city.

The condominium market and the house market here are two different economies. Maintenance fees, reserve fund studies and the status certificate decide what a unit actually costs to own, and the older buildings are working through the same reserve and insurance pressures as everywhere else. On the house side, the city's rules on laneway and garden suites have opened up what an ordinary lot can hold, which is worth understanding whether you plan to build one or you are buying next to someone who might.

Basement flooding is a real and local risk rather than a rare event, concentrated in parts of the city where the sewers are combined and the storms have outgrown them. The city runs a subsidy programme for backwater valves and disconnections, and whether previous owners used it is a question with a documented answer.

Moving to Toronto: check these before you commit

The municipal land transfer tax as well as the provincial one, and any first-time buyer rebate
The status certificate, reserve fund study and fee history for any condominium
Basement flooding history on the street, and whether a backwater valve has been installed
What the laneway and garden suite rules permit on the lot, and on the lots behind it
The effective tax rate on today's value rather than the published rate against a 2016 base

Weigh it against another city

Toronto compared

Home prices, rents, crime, climate, taxes and transit next to each of the other cities on the site, with what each does better and who should choose which. Nearest first.

03, Where the numbers come from

Sourced, dated, and separated from the guesswork

Every Toronto figure below is cited, stamped with the period it describes, and editable, because a number for the whole city rarely describes your purchase. Appreciation and investment returns are assumptions rather than facts, and they are labelled that way. Read the methodology for how the line is drawn.

Housing data

Version 1

Prices July 2026, rents October 2025

Prices, rents and tax rates: published statistics and the official schedules.
Nothing here is a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice.

Where the Toronto figures come from

Market Watch, July 2026 · Toronto Regional Real Estate Board · retrieved 2026-08-14
Supports: A City of Toronto MLS® HPI composite benchmark of $928,200 in July 2026, down 3.83% year over year, City of Toronto benchmarks of $1,455,200 single-family detached (down 4.40%), $1,146,300 single-family attached (down 4.00%), $725,300 townhouse (down 5.75%) and $551,900 apartment (down 7.09%), An All TRREB Areas composite benchmark of $934,600, down 4.63%, covering the region rather than the City, A GTA average selling price of $1,003,956 in July 2026, down 4.5% year over year, 5,995 sales, 14,484 new listings (down 17.8%) and 26,098 active listings (down 12.1%) in July 2026, District benchmarks for Toronto C02 ($1,302,900 composite, detached down 2.15%, apartment down 14.65%), C14 ($888,100), E07 ($735,600) and W06 ($814,300)
Rental Market Survey: Toronto, average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved 2026-08-14
Supports: Toronto CMA average purpose-built rents of $1,491 bachelor, $1,761 one-bedroom, $2,045 two-bedroom and $2,294 three-bedroom-plus, An overall purpose-built average of $1,917, A Toronto CMA purpose-built vacancy rate of 3.0%, the highest since 2021
Property tax rates and fees, 2026 · City of Toronto · retrieved 2026-08-14
Supports: A 2026 total residential rate of 0.767311%: 0.605295% city, 0.153% education and 0.009016% City Building Fund, The City's own worked example of $692,140 of assessment at 0.767311%, which is $5,311, Education rates set by the province and city rates set by council
City of Toronto's 2026 Budget now final · City of Toronto · retrieved 2026-08-14
Supports: A combined 2026 residential property tax and City Building Fund increase of 2.2%, MPAC's average Toronto current value assessment of $692,140, An increase of $91.53 a year, or $7.63 a month, on that average assessment
Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees · City of Toronto · retrieved 2026-08-14
Supports: A municipal land transfer tax charged on top of the provincial one, on Toronto purchases only, Brackets of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% and 4.4%, with further bands above $3,000,000, A first-time buyer rebate of up to $4,475 of the municipal tax
Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved 2026-08-14
Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value