Ontario increases amount landlords can raise rent by highest level in a decade
Ontario is more than doubling the maximum rate a landlord can raise a tenant's rent next year – marking the highest rent increase guideline in the province in a decade.
On Wednesday, the province announced Ontario’s rent increase guideline for 2023 is 2.5 per cent.
Previously, landlords were allowed to raise rent by 1.2 per cent in 2022, following a rent freeze that rolled out in 2020 to help Ontarians through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The last time Ontario’s rent increase guidelines reached 2.5 per cent was in 2013.
“As Ontario families face the rising cost of living, our government is providing stability and predictability to the vast majority of tenants by capping the rent increase guideline below inflation at 2.5 per cent,” Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The guideline is based on Ontario’s Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation calculated monthly by Statistics Canada that uses data that reflects economic conditions over the past year.
This follows an unprecedented move from the Bank of Canada earlier this month, increasing its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 1.5 per cent for the second time in two months.
If Ontario’s rent increase matched recent inflation, the 2023 guideline would have surged to 5.3 per cent. “However the guideline is capped to help protect tenants from significant rent increases,” the province said.
The new rent guideline comes on the heels of a report that found rent prices in Toronto rose by 20 per cent over the last year. On average, rent prices in the city rose to $2,474 in May, up from $2,035 a year ago. That marked the most substantial monthly increase in rent prices since 2019, before the pandemic began.
The government says rent increases are not automatic or mandatory. They are the maximum amount a landlord can raise a tenants’ rent without the approval of the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Landlords must give tenants at least 90 days’ written notice before pursuing a rent hike. At least 12 months must have passed since either the first day of the tenancy or the last rent increase.
The 2023 rent increase is applicable between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit natural gas levies to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
North Bay doctor accused of assaulting patient, threatening another
A North Bay doctor is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a patient with a weapon and threatening another person at the hospital, police say.