Ontario caps 2024 rent increases at 2.5 per cent; does not apply to newer units

Most Ontario landlords will be able to increase rent by up to 2.5 per cent next year.

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark says the rent increase guideline for 2024 is set at the same rate as for this year, and he notes that it is below the average inflation rate of 5.9 per cent.

The cap does not apply to rental units first occupied after Nov. 15, 2018.

Landlords can also apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for increases above 2.5 per cent.

They must also give tenants at least 90 days' written notice of a rent increase and they are not allowed to increase the rent more than once a year.

NDP housing critic Jessica Bell says 2.5-per-cent rent increases will make the housing affordability crisis worse.

"(It) is a huge increase, especially when you consider that rent is already so high, and most Ontarians' wages haven't kept up," she wrote in a statement.

"And if you're in a rental first rented on November 15, 2018 or later, the sky's the limit as far as how high your rent can go up, thanks to the Ford Conservatives' massive loophole."

The government set the rent increase guideline at zero in 2021 during the pandemic and raised it to 1.2 per cent for 2022.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2023.