If you moved into a Toronto apartment sometime in the last several months, odds are high that you would have been offered some sort of incentive to put pen to paper on a lease. The odds are actually around 63%, which is the percentage of buildings in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) that were offering incentives in Q1-2025, double the amount offering in Q1-2024.
Incentives being offered range from your more traditional one to two months of free rent to more creative offers like furniture store gift cards, free car wash services, and even straight-up cash, but they all have the same goal: to fill units during a period of weak rental demand.
In Toronto, vacancy rates reached 3.7% in Q1-2025, according to data from Urbanation, and rents have fallen 5.5% on a year-over-year basis to $2,606 as of May, according to data from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.
Associate Director of Communications at Rentals.ca, Giacomo Ladas, says the falling off in demand can be linked to a few factors, one being lower immigration targets.
“In larger markets like the GTA, incentives are a response to the slowing rental trend where demand has really declined, and that's happened a lot more with the reduction of international population growth,” Ladas tells STOREYS. “No one's moving. That's the other big part. Turn over rates are extremely low and people are just staying put a lot longer.”
On top of that, there's a historic wave of new supply coming to market, a large proportion of which offer frankly unaffordable units. “[...] what we really need right now are new units that people can afford like student rentals or studios," Ladas says.
Giocomo Ladas, Associate Director of Communications at Rentals.ca
All factors considered, demand has dipped low enough that incentives have reached pandemic levels, when no one was moving. "This is very parallel to what we saw during COVID, where property managers and landlords were trying anything we could to get people to move from their apartment," says Ladas.
At the same time, incentives aren't being offered at the same rate for all unit types or properties. Kimberly Sears, Director of Rental Suites Management at Menkes Developments says incentives are least necessary for their in-demand studios and one-bedrooms, and also for rent-controlled buildings. On the flip side, newer buildings with large numbers of unfilled units that can't offer rent control are more likely to use more incentives.
At Menkes, Sears says incentives are used more strategically than routinely. “We’ll evaluate how many days [a listing] has been on the market, what the showing traffic and tenant feedback has been, what the inventory levels and market absorption is. And these kinds of things give us an idea, at the time of doing the listing, what the competitive landscape is," she tells STOREYS.
Kimberly Sears, Director of Rental Suites Management at Menkes Developments
Sears says Menkes will focus on the perks already included in their buildings when marketing a listing. At their Sugar Wharf condos, for example, they offer Wi Fi and UNITY Fitness access included in the condo fees. "So it's already adding a meaningful value without necessarily requesting additional add ons," she explains.
At Hazelview Properties, incentives are similarly offered as a way to enhance existing value if needed. "Incentives aren’t just about filling suites — they’re a strategic tool to deliver exceptional value, foster long-term resident satisfaction, and help us attract prospective renters in today’s highly competitive market," Hazelview's Managing Partner and Head of Property Management Imraz Samim tells STOREYS. "We also invest in well-designed amenities and community spaces, all offered with no hidden fees, to create environments where people feel truly at home."
Imraz Samim, Managing Partner and Head of Property Management at Hazelview Properties
Incentives offered by at certain Hazelview properties include free Maple virtual healthcare, and discounts at Sleep Country Canada, The Brick, EQ3 Furniture, and moving company CARGO CABBIE, plus the more traditional offers like one to twomonths of free rent.
As long as demand remains sedated, renters will continue to benefit from falling rents and incentive perks, but Rentals.ca's Ladas foresees the trend reversing once the currently-brewing supply gap catches up to demand.
"We are very close to a time where there's not a lot of supply coming. When that happens, when there's not enough supply to meet demand, we will probably see incentives leave," he says. "I do think [incentives] are here to stay as we keep seeing supply coming to the market, and we still see a decrease in population growth, but when any of those factors change, I do expect that we are going to see a little bit of a pullback in these incentives.”
