How long would it take to save for a condo downpayment in Toronto without paying rent?

It’s not news that rent costs have skyrocketed in Toronto over the past three years or so, especially for condo apartment rentals. Condos in downtown Toronto, which include units in the Entertainment District, CityPlace and Liberty Village, will cost you an average of $2,709 a month. And, since that’s the region which has the largest concentration of condos in the GTA, it’s a pretty accurate representation of what prospective tenants are looking at. In fact, even if you spread your search for a unit outward, there’s almost no neighbourhood where you can rent a condo for under $2,000 a month. Overall, the average price of a condo on the MLS will cost just over $2,500 — a nice, painful chunk of change.

But did you know that if you squirrelled away that rent every month for 14.7 months, you could have $37,807 — the exact amount to put down the minimum payment required for a condo selling at the city average of $628,074?

To see how long it would take Torontonians to save up for a condo downpayment if they didn’t have additional shelter costs, Zoocasa looked at the average condo sold prices in Q3 2019 and compared them to the average lease rates for condo apartment units on the MLS in 35 neighbourhoods across the city. They then calculated how long it would take for rental payments to equal the minimum down payment necessary in each.

In Canada, home buyers need just 5% of the purchase price for properties under $500,000. For homes over $500,000 but under $1 million, they need $25,000 plus 10% of the portion of the purchase price over $500,000. For properties over $1 million they need a full 20% of the purchase price.

Let’s take condos for sale in North York as an example. In Bathurst Manor and Clanton park, condos are priced at an average of $540,111. The necessary minimum down payment would be $29,011 ($25,000 plus 10% of $40,111). The average rent in that neighbourhood is $2,285, meaning it would take just over one year — 12.7 months — of rent to make up a downpayment.

So how many months of rent would it take you to save up for a down payment in your current neighbourhood? You can check out the infographic below to find out.