How Is The Downtown Rental Market?

Riddle me this, Batman:

If you were a landlord, would you insist on meeting your prospective tenants in person before agreeing to sign a lease with them?

Would you, at the very least, require a Zoom call?

About a decade ago, I was leasing a property on behalf of a couple who were – get this – a judge and a Crown attorney, respectively.

As you can imagine, they picked apart every small detail of the listing paperwork, the lease offer, and the process of leasing itself.

We received four offers to lease their home, and when it came time to choose which tenants we wanted to work with, I suggested that they set up an interview.

I hate saying things like this, because I feel old doing so, but this was before Zoom had been invented.  I’m pretty sure FaceTime wasn’t a thing yet, either.

I was on a conference wall with the judge and the Crown when I said, “There are two couples that we’re considering, so let’s set up a coffee meeting for a quick interview, and see who we like more.”

The judge said, “Perfect.  Then we’ll just get ready to be served.”

I didn’t understand.

The Crown said, “David, that’s just begging for a lawsuit.”

I believe I let out a comedic “Oooookaaaay,” at best, but I might have just sat in silence.

The judge said, “David, we meet one couple, then a second, and as soon as we make that choice, the couple who doesn’t get picked will argue ‘discrimination’.”

I said, “What would make you think they would make that argument?”

The Crown said, “Because they can.”

It seemed as though they had my outlook on life: cynical, jaded, and expecting the worst.

The judge said, “There’s no way to do this without creating a discrimination claim.  If we interviewed one couple and not the other, then we’re discriminating.  We’re not providing equal opportunity.  If we interview both couples and choose one, then the couple we don’t choose will argue that it’s solely because of their age, race, gender, identity, or something else.”

I just sat there thinking to myself, “Who is going to argue this?”

And more to the point, why?

I asked, “Do you actually think this is what’s going to happen?”

The judge said, “No.  But it could.”

The crown chimed in, “And that’s exactly the point.”

The crown explained that “You don’t put yourself in situations where you could be accused of discrimination, even if the probability is low.”

The judge said, “Perceived discrimination is discrimination, and potential for a legal action is reason to take a different course of action.”

I just shook my head.

Can you imagine these two trying to order from a restaurant menu?

“To each their own,” would apply here, but I’m wondering what the average Toronto landlord in 2026 would think about this.

In today’s market, more often than not, the landlord wants to interview the tenant.  Whether this is in person over a coffee, on a Zoom call, or simply a quick phone call, I’m seeing more than half of my landlord clients insisting on “looking eye-to-eye” with the tenant.

One of my landlords said, “I would never enter into a financial arrangement with somebody I’ve never met.”

Another client told me, “I feel that once you’ve locked eyes with somebody, once you’ve smiled at them and seen them return the smile, once you’ve humanized with them, they’re far less likely to screw you.”

So then, my question of the day to the TRB readers is this:

If you’re a landlord, or if you were a landlord, do you or would you insist on meeting a prospective tenant before agreeing to lease to them?

Feel free to answer in the comments section below.

Three months ago, we were heading into what is typically a very busy season in the Toronto rental market.

July is a huge month, since every student looking for a possession date of September 1st is going to rent in July (assuming most condos require 60 days notice), and that’s quite apparent from the data.

In 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, the highest number of downtown condos listed in any individual month was July every single year.

In Q1 and Q1 of 2026, the number of lease listings was down every single month.

That trent continued into Q3:

As you can see, new listings peaked, once again, in the month of July.

However, listings were down in each of July, August, and September, compared to 2025.

Not only that, whereas lease listings were consistent with 2024 and 2025 for the first half of 2026, they’ve fallen well below those levels, as the chart shows:

Look at the gap between 2022 and 2023 (orange and blue) and 2024, 2025, and 2026.

It narrows significantly as we move into December.

Consider that downtown Toronto condo lease listings peaked in 2025, and suddenly we need to acknowledge that the pace has fallen off significantly.

Here’s how the year is pacing thus far:

At this rate, we’re not only going to see fewer listings in 2026 than in 2025, which was our peak, but we’ll see fewer listings than in 2024 as well.

As for condos leased, the year-over-year trend from Q1 and Q2 continued into Q3:

While condos leased in July were 13% less than in 2025, that figure was still higher than 2024, and substantially higher than 2022 and 2023.

The irony is: these four charts and tables show us that, the more properties that are offered for lease, the more properties that are leased:

That speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

It’s not like lease listings are up by 30%, but condos leased are down by 10%.

Nope.

It seems that if we see an increase in listings, we’ll see an increase in condos leased, and vice versa.

This is quite apparent when we look at the absorption rate:

Look at August.

100%.

That’s the first time we’ve seen an absorption rate of 100% since April of 2021.  And for the record, that doesn’t mean that every condo listed in August was leased in August, but rather it’s a ratio of new listings to leases.  Properties listed in June or July could have been leased in August; it’s the ratio that matters.

While the next chart is going to look like your kid’s Spirograph, pay attention to 2026’s level in August and September:

August and September saw the highest absorption rates in the last five years!

Compare 2026 to 2023, just to say we did.

August:
2023: 83%
2026: 100%

September:
2023: 61%
2026: 83%

In just three years, the absorption rate has skyrocketed.

Lease listings are down, and I believe it’s being felt in the marketplace.

As for whether or not this is translating with respect to price, it clearly isn’t.

According to data from Rentals.ca, Toronto’s average rental price is down 2.0%, year-over-year, which isn’t a lot to get excited about.

I mean, two percent?  That’s like the rate of inflation!

“Headline inflation, or core inflation?”

Oh man, that’s a debate for another day, and I don’t recommend you ask Tiff Macklem any time soon…