Hamilton rental market data
Hamilton’s metro area reaches past the city itself: CMHC’s survey area takes in Burlington and Grimsby as well as the whole amalgamated City of Hamilton, including the former municipalities of Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Glanbrook and Stoney Creek. Across it, 3.6% of purpose-built apartments stood empty in October 2025, against 2.4% in October 2024, a level CMHC calls the highest since the pandemic. The average 2-bedroom rented for $1,656, and rents on the same units rose only 1.6% over the year, below Ontario’s 3.7%. (Both figures are for buildings of three or more units; how the survey works is on the hub page.)
Average rent by bedroom type
| Unit type | Average rent paid, all tenants (October 2025) | Average asking rent, new tenants (second quarter of 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor / studio | $1,104 | $1,470 |
| 1 bedroom | $1,410 | $1,720 |
| 2 bedroom | $1,656 | $2,150 |
| 3 bedroom+ | $1,897 | $2,540 |
The first column is CMHC's average for occupied units in apartment buildings of six or more units, so it includes long-term tenants paying below-market rents. The second is Statistics Canada's average of listed rents, closer to what you'd be quoted if you moved now.
Hamilton’s 2-bedroom listings asked $2,150 in the second quarter of 2026, unchanged from a year earlier, while 1-bedroom listings were 3.9% below their year-earlier level of $1,790.
Rent and vacancy by survey zone
CMHC groups its first six zones, the former City of Hamilton, and reports Grimsby and Stoney Creek, Burlington and the Ancaster/Dundas/Flamborough/Glanbrook zone separately, then totals the CMA (October 2025, apartments in buildings of three or more units).
| Area | Vacancy rate | Average 2-bedroom rent | Average rent, all units | Apartments surveyed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown core | 4.8% | $1,643 | $1,494 | 10,162 |
| Central East | not published | $1,291 | $1,182 | 3,758 |
| East End | 3.4% | $1,464 | $1,412 | 4,534 |
| Central | 5.2% | $1,506 | $1,420 | 3,088 |
| West End | 5.3% | $1,633 | $1,567 | 2,522 |
| Mountain | 3.1% | $1,479 | $1,405 | 7,613 |
| Former City of Hamilton (the zones above) | 4.2% | $1,511 | $1,423 | 31,677 |
| Grimsby and Stoney Creek | 3.4% | $1,408 | $1,346 | 2,372 |
| Burlington | 2.0% | $2,057 | $1,982 | 8,991 |
| Ancaster/Dundas/Flamborough/Glanbrook | 2.7% | $1,811 | $1,668 | 2,388 |
| Hamilton CMA | 3.6% | $1,656 | $1,541 | 45,428 |
Source: CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Hamilton workbook, Tables 1.1.1 to 1.1.3. “Not published”: CMHC suppressed the figure or rated it poor (use with caution).
Burlington is the highest-rent zone for a 2-bedroom, at $546 a month more than the former City of Hamilton average, and it also had the lowest vacancy rate. Central East, the zone with the lowest 2-bedroom rent, had a vacancy rate CMHC rated poor (use with caution), so the table leaves it out. The West End, where McMaster students typically rent, had the highest vacancy, and on the Mountain, the zone CMHC links to Mohawk College students, the rate went from 1.5% to 3.1%. The downtown core, with 10,162 surveyed apartments, is the largest zone, and its vacancy of 4.8% sat above the CMA’s 3.6%.
Why Hamilton’s market softened
CMHC’s Rental Market Report gives two main reasons: international students kept leaving, and more condo owners put their units up for rent. Weaker student demand showed up in the West End and Mountain zones, while zones with fewer student renters had fewer empty units. Downtown, a wave of new condo completions competed directly with newer purpose-built rentals, which pushed that zone’s vacancy above the metro average.
Purpose-built supply barely changed during the year, but CMHC counted 1,337 rental units under construction in the third quarter, close to a record, so more is coming. With more vacant units across price ranges, CMHC says tenants moved more readily, and the turnover rate climbed to 13.1% from 9.5%.
Rented condos
CMHC counted 7,086 condo apartments rented out in the Hamilton CMA, 31% of all condo apartments there, a share it describes as a record because the for-sale condo market stayed weak. They are the expensive end of the market: a rented condo 2-bedroom averaged $2,831, 71% above the purpose-built average, with a vacancy rate of 1.2%.
New tenants vs sitting tenants
CMHC’s new-tenant 2-bedroom average was $2,177 in October 2025, and the average for tenants who stayed was $1,585: $592 more each month, or 37% more. CMHC notes that the new-lease 2-bedroom rent itself barely moved this year (+0.1% in the table), and sitting tenants’ rents were flat too (+0.6%).
Vacancy rate trend
Hamilton vacancy rate, apartments in buildings of 6+ units (CMHC, October each year)
Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey via Statistics Canada table 34-10-0127.
Income needed for a Hamilton 2-bedroom
CMHC considers housing affordable when it costs less than 30% of before-tax household income, counting the rent (or mortgage payments, property tax and condo fees) plus electricity, heat, water and other municipal services. The figures here count the rent alone, so with utilities the income needed is higher. Paying $1,656 a month stays within CMHC’s 30% affordability benchmark on a gross household income of $66,240 or more. Hamilton’s median household income in the census was $91,000 (income year 2020, all households including owners), which puts the requirement 27% below it. Signing today at the $2,150 asking rent raises it to $86,000, 5% below the 2020 median, keeping in mind the income and rent figures are years apart. The rent affordability calculator works it out for a particular income and rent.
Hamilton against Toronto, Ontario and Canada
On CMHC’s three-units-and-over survey, Hamilton’s 2-bedroom average was 19% below Toronto’s $2,046, 9% below the Ontario average of $1,827, and 7% above Canada’s $1,550. Among Ontario’s 16 surveyed centres it ranks eighth-highest, and 16th-highest of 43 metro areas nationally. Its vacancy rate of 3.6% was higher than Toronto’s 3.0% and higher than the national 3.1%.
Rules on rent increases in Hamilton
Ontario's rent increase guideline is 2.1% for 2026 (units first occupied after November 15, 2018 are exempt). Ontario landlords may raise rent once every 12 months and must give at least 90 days' written notice. In Ontario the only deposit a landlord can collect is a rent deposit, no more than one month's rent (or one rent period, if that is shorter); it must be applied to the last rent period before the tenancy ends, and the landlord pays interest on it every year at the rent increase guideline rate.
More: the Ontario rental market page (guideline by year), the Ontario tenant rights guide, rent increase rules by province and how to get a security deposit back.
Related pages
- Toronto Rental Market: the larger market next door, zone by zone
- Ontario Rental Market: all surveyed Ontario centres
- Hamilton Housing Market: what buying costs instead
- Income in Hamilton: household income percentiles
Sources
- CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Hamilton workbook: zone rents, vacancy and units
- CMHC Rental Market Report data tables: national Tables 1.0, 4.2 (rented condos) and 6.0 (new and sitting tenants)
- CMHC Rental Market Report, major centres: Hamilton commentary
- Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133 and 34-10-0127: rents and vacancy, structures of six units and over
- Statistics Canada table 46-10-0092: quarterly asking rents
- Statistics Canada table 98-10-0061: census household income