Although rents have started to climb again after hitting bottom earlier this year, the normally-wide price gap between furnished and unfurnished rentals in Toronto appears to be shrinking.
The price of renting an unfurnished one-bedroom home in Toronto is now $1,696, which is just $27 less than the cost of a furnished apartment at $1,723, according to new insights published in liv.rent’s June 2021 Toronto Rental Report.
“There’s an astoundingly small gap between furnished and unfurnished rental averages in Toronto right now,” noted liv.rent.
Just a month earlier, the rental listings site reported that the price of an unfurnished one-bedroom property in the city was $1,704, which was $61 cheaper than a furnished one-bedroom which cost $1,765 at the time. And now, according to its June report, this gap has clearly narrowed again.
Across the entire region, the price difference between furnished and unfurnished rentals varied, but all areas recorded a narrowing of the price gap.
The average rents of unfurnished one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in the city’s downtown core were reported to be $1,884, $2,414 and $2,763, respectively, in June. In the furnished segment, units with the same number of bedrooms cost $1,932, $2,603 and $3,058, or $48, $189 and $295 more than their unfurnished counterparts, respectively. Compared to the previous month, the price of an unfurnished one-bedroom rental located downtown increased by 5.49 percent while furnished one-bedrooms climbed by 2.11 percent.
In North York, the price of renting a furnished property is actually cheaper than a rental with no furnishings. It now costs $1,797 to rent a one-bedroom unfurnished apartment, $32 more than the cost of a furnished rental at $1,765. Month-to-month, rents for an unfurnished one-bedroom home in North York were up by 4.26 percent and 1.80 percent for furnished listings in June.
The price of an unfurnished one-bedroom rental in Scarborough and Etobicoke was reported at $1,618 and $1,749 this month, representing a savings of $34 and $45 compared to furnished one-bedrooms which cost $1,652 and $1,794. Prices for a furnished home in Scarborough and Etobicoke were actually down on a monthly basis, dropping by 1.36 percent and 1.85 percent. Meanwhile, the cost of an unfurnished property rose by 1.17 percent and 1.71 percent month-to-month.
Furnished and unfurnished one-bedroom rentals in Vaughan-Richmond Hill were reported to be extremely close in price in June. With a difference of just $18, the cost of an unfurnished home was $1,653 versus $1,671 for a furnished one-bedroom property in the community.
