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Cost of Living in Ottawa: Rent, Bills and Take-Home Pay

Updated

Ottawa sits in Ontario, but part of its metropolitan area, Gatineau, is in Quebec, so where you live in the region changes your rent, your transit system and the province that taxes your income. This page sets out each of those costs from official figures. For other cities, start from the cost of living guides; to compare Ontario with other provinces, see cost of living by province.

Rent

For a new lease in the Ontario part of Ottawa-Gatineau, Statistics Canada’s average asking rent in the second quarter of 2026 was $1,550 for a studio, $1,900 for one bedroom and $2,360 for two. CMHC’s measure, which also counts sitting tenants, comes out lower: its October 2025 average rent for a one-bedroom in purpose-built buildings was $1,604, with 3.1% of units vacant. In Kanata, Rentals.ca’s August 2026 report had one-bedroom listings averaging $2,251.

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. On the asking rent alone, before utilities, an Ottawa one-bedroom at the average needs a household income of at least $76,000 a year. Ontario's rent increase guideline is 2.1% for 2026 (units first occupied after November 15, 2018 are exempt). Vacancy history and rents by unit size are on the Ottawa rental market page.

Home prices

The Ottawa Real Estate Board’s August 2026 figures: an average home price of $688,253, a median sale of $622,357 and a composite MLS benchmark of $637,700. Its benchmarks by type, last published as levels for July 2026, were $385,500 for an apartment, $542,500 for a townhouse and $725,000 for a single-family home.

Financing the composite benchmark with a 20% down payment over 25 years would cost about $3,291 a month at 6.09%, the Bank of Canada’s posted 5-year conventional rate for the week of September 30, 2026. Uninsured fixed-rate mortgages of 5 years or more that chartered banks funded in July 2026, counting new loans, renewals and refinancing, averaged 4.49%; a rate like that would lower the payment. Market detail is on the Ottawa housing market page.

OC Transpo, STO and driving

Fare or costPrice
OC Transpo adult monthly pass$138.50
OC Transpo adult ride, Presto / cash$4.10 / $4.15
OC Transpo DayPass$12.25
STO (Gatineau) adult monthly pass$116.50
Ottawa regular gasoline, August 2026165.0¢ a litre
Ontario average auto insurance premium, Statistics Canada, 2025 study$2,068 a year

Paying OC Transpo fares with Presto or a tapped credit or debit card, you are never charged more than the price of a DayPass ($12.25) in a day or of an adult monthly pass ($138.50) in a month. (OC Transpo fares, fares as of September 2026; STO fares, fares as of September 2026.) Of the provinces and regions in Statistics Canada’s premium figures, Ontario’s average was the highest.

Hydro, gas and other bills

BillAmountSource
Hydro Ottawa bill, 750 / 1,000 kWh a month$115.27 / $143.51Hydro-Québec city comparison, rates of April 1, 2025, before tax
Ontario off-peak / on-peak electricity price9.8¢ / 20.3¢ per kWhOntario Energy Board time-of-use prices from November 1, 2025
Enbridge Gas, typical residential bill$84.88 a month2,400 m³ a year at rates from October 1, 2026 (Enbridge rate zone)
Ontario household internet spending$87 a monthSurvey of Household Spending, 2023

Some leases include utilities in the rent, so check yours before adding these. January lows at Ottawa airport average -14.3°C (1991-2020 normals). The utility bills page compares provinces.

Taxes and pay

Shoppers pay 13% HST in Ottawa and 14.975% GST plus QST in Gatineau. An Ottawa employee on $70,000 keeps about $53,786 a year after 2026 federal and Ontario income tax, CPP and EI; the Ontario income tax page has the brackets. Half of the residents with income in the Ontario part of the region had total income above $56,770 in 2023 (Statistics Canada median, tax-filer data). Ontario groceries, which Statistics Canada prices province-wide, are covered on the grocery bill page: a dozen eggs averaged $5.00 in Ontario in July 2026.

Sample budget: Ottawa or Gatineau

One person renting an average one-bedroom on either side of the river, on the same $60,000 salary, with groceries, internet and phone at the national averages for people living alone. Both columns leave out clothing, insurance, health costs, savings and debt.

Each monthOttawaGatineau
One-bedroom, average asking rent$1,900$1,440
Monthly transit pass, to the dollar (OC Transpo fares as of September 2026; STO fares as of September 2026)$139$117
Food from stores (2023 one-person average)$383$383
Internet$70$70
Cell phone$69$69
Total costs$2,561$2,079
Take-home on $60,000, per month$3,945$3,777
Left over$1,384$1,698

Take-home is after 2026 federal and provincial income tax, CPP or QPP, EI and, in Quebec, QPIP premiums, with the Quebec abatement of federal tax included. Electricity and heat are left out because they vary with whether the unit includes them.

Quebec’s system is explained on the Quebec income tax page. On the buying side, APCIQ reported a median single-family price of $523,500 for the Gatineau area in the second quarter of 2026; Ottawa’s board publishes a benchmark rather than a median by type, so the two aren’t directly comparable. Montreal’s costs are set against Ottawa’s in the Ottawa vs Montreal comparison.

How Ottawa compares

City1-bed asking rentAdult transit, monthlySales taxAfter-tax pay on $80,000
Ottawa$1,900$138.5013%$60,303
Toronto$2,090$155.10 (TTC cap)13%$60,303
Montreal$1,480$110.0014.975%$57,012
Kitchener-Waterloo$1,740$104.0013%$60,303
Halifax$1,880$90.0014%$56,439

Statistics Canada asking rents for the second quarter of 2026; transit at each agency’s fares (OC Transpo fares as of September 2026, TTC fares as of September 2026, ARTM fares as of September 2026, GRT fares as of September 2026, Halifax Transit fares as of September 2026); after-tax pay for one employee under 2026 rules. Ottawa’s one-bedroom asking rent came in 9% below Toronto’s, and its August 2026 average sale price 31% below the Greater Toronto Area’s August 2026 average of $993,410 (TRREB).

Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between September 24, 2026 and October 4, 2026. How we check facts.