Cost of Living in London, Ontario: Rent, Home Prices and Everyday Costs

London sits far enough from Toronto that it works as its own housing and job market. Its average asking rent for a 1-bedroom apartment came to $1,560 in the second quarter of 2026, 25% below Toronto’s (Statistics Canada), and homes across the London and St. Thomas board area sold for $611,509 on average in September 2026. VIA Rail’s route to Toronto is 185 km, too far for most daily commuters, which makes local jobs count: London’s unemployment rate was 8.5% in August 2026, above the national 6.5%. For food, utility and phone costs, which nobody publishes for London alone, the hub of cost-of-living guides has Ontario and Canada figures.

London costs at a glance

Rent in London

Apartments advertised in the London CMA during the second quarter of 2026 (Statistics Canada, which marks the year-earlier figures “use with caution”, so treat the changes as approximate).

London’s vacancy rate for apartments in buildings of six or more units, 3.9% in CMHC’s October 2025 count against 2.7% a year earlier, shows how much choice a renter has. Rent also depends on how long a tenant has stayed: a purpose-built 1-bedroom that changed hands in the year averaged $1,596, one held by the same tenant $1,279. See London rental market data for CMHC’s detail and average rent in Canada for other cities.

Home prices in London

LSTAR, the London and St. Thomas board, reported an average sale price of $611,509 across all its regions in September 2026. Because an average shifts with the mix of homes sold, set it beside other averages rather than benchmark prices: TRREB’s average across the Greater Toronto Area was $993,410 in August 2026. Average home prices in Canada lists more cities.

Buy at London’s average price with 20% down, amortize over 25 years at the posted 5-year conventional rate from the Bank of Canada (6.09%, September 30, 2026), and the payment comes to roughly $3,156 a month, not counting property tax or insurance. Other scenarios: mortgage payment calculator; Ontario’s purchase tax: Ontario land transfer tax calculator; first-time buyer refunds: buying a home in Ontario.

Getting around

The London Transit Commission (LTC) runs the city’s buses (fares as of September 2026):

Monthly permits in City of London municipal parking lots cost $60 to $115 depending on the lot (rates in effect from February 1, 2026). Car insurance in Ontario averaged $2,068 a year in written premiums in Statistics Canada, 2025 study (Statistics Canada). London has no gas price series of its own; for reference, regular in Toronto cost $1.70 a litre in August 2026.

VIA Rail’s London to Toronto trains average 2 hours 33 minutes for the 185 km trip.

Child care and everyday bills

In Ontario, licensed child care programs enrolled in the Canada-wide (CWELCC) system charge at most $22 a day for children under six, with no application needed; programs that aren't enrolled set their own fees. At that cap, a London family with one child under six in an enrolled program pays no more than $479 for a month of 21.75 billing days . Other provinces’ fees are on cost of living by province. For household bills, see the Ontario figures on the grocery bill, utility bills, cell phone bill and internet bill pages.

Taxes

Take a London employee on $55,000: after 2026 federal and Ontario income tax, the Ontario Health Premium, CPP and EI, about $43,861 a year is left, $3,655 a month. Taxable purchases carry Ontario’s 13% HST. The province’s brackets are on Ontario income tax, and the salary after tax calculator handles other salaries.

Jobs and incomes

With 8.5% unemployment in August 2026 (three-month moving average, June to August) (6.5% in Canada as a whole), the local job market weighs heavily in a move to London. The London area’s 2021 Census median household income was $79,500 before tax for 2020; the Canadian median was $84,000. Average and median income in London has the detail.

London compared with nearby cities

Statistics Canada asking rents (second quarter of 2026); transit at LTC fares as of September 2026, TTC fares as of September 2026, HSR fares as of September 2026 and GRT fares as of September 2026; unemployment as of August 2026 (three-month moving average, June to August); before-tax incomes from the 2021 Census. For the neighbours, read Hamilton’s page or Kitchener-Waterloo’s.

Trade-offs of living in London

• Rent against jobs. Weigh the rents and the unemployment rates in the table above together before moving without a job lined up; remote workers paid on a Toronto scale avoid the local job market.
• Distance. VIA Rail’s trains to Toronto average 2 hours 33 minutes each way, so commuting to Toronto every day is a long trip.
• Winters. January averages -5.4°C (Environment Canada 1991 to 2020 normals).

Related reading

• Cost of living in Canada: all city and province guides
• Cost of living in Hamilton
• Cost of living in Kitchener-Waterloo
• Financial guide to living in Ontario
• London rental market data

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