The rent you set at the start of a tenancy matters more in Ontario than in most markets, because for most units it is the last time you get to choose it freely.
Finding the number
Leased comparables, not listed ones. What similar units actually leased for in the last sixty days. Asking rents tell you what landlords hoped for.
Days on market in your building or pocket. A unit sitting for five weeks is priced wrong, and the cost of that vacancy usually exceeds the difference you were holding out for.
What is included. Parking, a locker, hydro, and internet all move the number and are the easiest way to differentiate without cutting the rent.
Season. May through September is the strongest stretch in the GTA. Late November through January is the weakest by some distance.
At $3,000 a month, every empty month costs $3,000. Holding out for an extra $100 takes thirty months to recover a single month of vacancy, and that assumes you get it. Price to lease, then use the annual guideline.
The exemption that changes everything
These are exempt from the rent increase guideline. You must still give ninety days' written notice on Form N1 and still wait twelve months between increases, but there is no cap on the amount.
For everything else, increases are capped at the guideline, which for 2026 is 2.1 per cent.
The practical consequence is that on a guideline-controlled unit, the opening rent is close to a permanent decision. Set it too low out of caution and you are locked to it plus roughly two per cent a year for as long as that tenant stays. Set it too high and you carry a vacancy. This is the single most consequential number in a rental, and it is worth taking seriously.
There is no legal mechanism to reset the rent to market when a tenant stays. Vacancy decontrol only applies when a unit genuinely becomes vacant. Ending a tenancy in order to raise the rent is a bad-faith eviction, now carrying fines of up to $100,000 for an individual.
It is published annually. The 2026 figure of 2.1 per cent was checked in July 2026. Confirm the current year's number on Ontario's website.