How Much Rent Can You Afford in London?
London has the loosest rental market of any Ontario city here, with vacancy at 4.0%. The quoted two-bedroom average is $1651 and the asking rent $1930 — a 16.9% gap, well below Hamilton’s or Toronto’s.
Step 1 of 2
What you can actually rent
$1,800to$2,700
There is no single answer — three different figures are all defensible, and only one of them is the 30% rule you have been told about.
$1,800/mo
CMHC affordability standard 30%
What CMHC calls affordable. A policy measure, not a landlord rule.
$1,956/mo
What applicants actually pay 32.6%
The average across roughly 300,000 Canadian applications a year — 26% in Winnipeg, 35.6% in Vancouver.
$2,700/mo
The one published underwriting limit 45%
A rent-guarantee insurer will cover up to this. Well beyond comfortable.
In London
The "average rent" figure you will see quoted is $1,651 — that is what sitting tenants pay. You would be asked $1,930, $279 more, because turnover here is only 15%.
Both a one and a two-bedroom are within what people on your income pay.
Pay $1,956 — what people on your income really do — and $3,594 a month is left for everything else, after $450 of loan and card payments.
In Ontario a landlord may not apply this ratio at all
A landlord here may consider your income only alongside credit references and rental history — never on its own. Why
How this was worked out
- Your monthly income before tax$72,000 a year is $6,000 a month
- 30% — the CMHC standard$1,800 a month. This measures core housing need; it is not a rule any landlord applies.
- 32.6% — what applicants really pay$1,956 a month, the average of real Canadian rental applications.
- After your existing payments$450 of loan and card payments leaves $5,550 a month, so rent at the CMHC standard leaves $3,750 for everything else.
- What that rents in LondonSitting tenants pay $1,651 for a two-bedroom, but you would be asked $1,930 — $279 more, because turnover is only 15%.
- In Ontario, no ratio may be appliedKearney v. Bramalea held that minimum income criteria breach the Human Rights Code, alone or combined with other criteria, because they have disparate impact on protected grounds and no proven predictive value. O. Reg. 290/98 permits a landlord to consider income only together with credit references, rental history and a credit check.
Between $1,800 and $2,700 a month. People on this income typically pay $1,956.
Rent near $1,956 leaves $3,594 a month for everything else. If the gap between payday and rent day is the problem, NotchUp can advance up to $1,500 of wages you have already earned for a $5 flat fee.
See what you could advance- $1930asking, two-bedroom
- +16.9%vs the quoted average
- 15.1%annual turnover
A 4.0% vacancy rate changes the negotiation
London’s vacancy is the highest among the Ontario cities in this set. That does not make it cheap, but it does mean listings sit rather than vanish.
Where units compete for tenants, asking rents drift back toward the surveyed average. London’s 16.9% gap is roughly half Hamilton’s, and the vacancy rate is most of the explanation.
The ratio rule applies here too
An Ontario landlord may not use a rent-to-income ratio to screen you. Kearney v. Bramalea found such criteria breach the Human Rights Code, and the decision was upheld on appeal.
Income may be considered only alongside credit references, rental history and a credit check. If a London landlord tells you the rent must be a third of your income, that is not a legal requirement.
London by zone: East at $1,360, North at $2,018
London’s 11 CMHC zones divide cleanly along Oxford Street. North of it — the North zone at $2,018, Downtown North $1,986, Northwest $1,670 — is the Western University and Masonville market. South and east of it the two-bedroom drops to $1,360 in the East zone and $1,342 in the Northeast, the lowest figures of any big-city zone in Ontario.
The $676 gap between North and Northeast is about $27,000 a year at the 30% standard, and it is a fifteen-minute bus ride. Few Canadian cities let a renter buy that much back with a postcode.
| Area | 1 bedroom | 2 bedroom | Vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | $1,239 | $1,342 | 4.2% |
| East | $1,170 | $1,360 | 4.2% |
| Strathroy-Caradoc | $1,157 | $1,492 | 2.1% |
| Central South | $1,225 | $1,549 | 4.8% |
| South | $1,360 | $1,595 | 2.3% |
| St. Thomas | $1,187 | $1,606 | 4.0% |
| Southwest | $1,401 | $1,629 | 2.5% |
| Northwest | $1,409 | $1,670 | 4.4% |
| Downtown North | $1,505 | $1,986 | 5.8% |
| North | $1,575 | $2,018 | 3.3% |
| Remainder of London CMA | — | $2,036 | 1.3% |
CMHC Rental Market Survey, October 2025, survey zones, row and apartment units. A dash is a cell CMHC suppressed for sample size. Zone averages include row houses, so they can differ by a few dollars from the apartment-only citywide figures quoted above.
Vacancy is loose almost everywhere — Downtown North 5.8%, Central South 4.8%, Northeast 4.2% — because 2024 and 2025 completions hit a city whose student population stopped growing. St. Thomas, at $1,606, is no longer the cheap escape it was; the Volkswagen plant saw to that.
A mid-sized city with a big-city renter burden
- 37%of households rent
- 38.4%of renters spend 30%+ on shelter
- $79,500median household income (2020)
- 10.9%of renters in subsidized housing
38.4% of London’s renters spend 30% or more of income on shelter — fifth-highest of the sixteen cities here, above Vancouver — on a median household income of $79,500 that is the lowest of the five Ontario cities on this site. Rents caught up with the big cities in 2021–23; wages did not.
37% of households rent, and 10.9% of those are in subsidized housing. The student share of the rental market means the census numbers understate the pressure on working renters, who compete with per-room student leases for the same North zone stock.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, Census Profile, London census metropolitan area. 83,170 renter households out of 222,240.
A large student population moves the market on a calendar
Western and Fanshawe put tens of thousands of renters into the same city on the same academic schedule. Listings and prices move sharply around the start of term.
Turnover of 15.1% reflects that rhythm. Timing a search away from the August peak is worth more here than in cities where demand is steady year-round.
An older rental stock
Much of London’s rental supply is older low-rise built decades ago, rather than the recent towers that dominate newer markets. Older stock is cheaper and comes with different trade-offs on heating costs and maintenance.
Age also affects which units fall under Ontario’s rent increase guideline. Anything first occupied before 15 November 2018 is covered; newer buildings are not.
Direction of travel
National asking rents have fallen for 22 straight months. Looser markets feel that first, and London is among the loosest in Ontario.
That gives a prospective tenant more room than the same rent would have bought two years ago — the gap narrows when landlords have to compete.
Ontario’s guideline, and London’s exempt new towers
- Increase cap
- 2.1% for 2026Rent-controlled units only. Units first occupied after 15 November 2018 are exempt; the guideline for 2027 is 1.9%.
- Deposit
- Last month’s rent only — no damage deposit
- Notice
- 90 days’ written notice, once every 12 months
- Disputes
- Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)
The 2026 guideline of 2.1% on CMHC’s $1,651 average is about $35 a month. London’s recent building boom — the towers along Richmond Row and around the core — is post-2018 and exempt, so the guideline protects the older stock in the East and Northeast zones, which is also the cheaper stock. The two protections line up here in a way they do not in Toronto.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average rent in London, Ontario?
CMHC puts the two-bedroom average at $1651 across sitting tenants. Advertised rents average $1930, a 16.9% difference.
Is London cheaper than Toronto or Hamilton?
Yes, on both measures — and the gap between quoted and asking rent is also smaller here, so the saving is closer to what the averages suggest than it is in either of those cities.
Can a London landlord require me to earn three times the rent?
No. Applying a rent-to-income ratio is unlawful in Ontario. Income can only be considered together with credit references, rental history and a credit check.
Does the older housing stock cost more to run?
Often. Many London rentals predate modern insulation standards, so a lower rent can be partly offset by winter heating. Ask whether utilities are included before comparing two listings on rent alone.
When is the best time to look?
Away from the August and September student peak. With 15.1% turnover concentrated around the academic calendar, timing matters more in London than in most cities.
What is the cheapest area of London, Ontario to rent in?
The Northeast zone at $1,342 for a two-bedroom, then the East zone at $1,360 and Strathroy-Caradoc at $1,492, per CMHC’s October 2025 survey. A one-bedroom in the East zone averages $1,170.
Why is rent near Western University so much higher?
The North zone averages $2,018 for a two-bedroom against $1,342 in the Northeast. Student demand supports per-room pricing that a family lease cannot match, and most of the city’s newer, exempt-from-guideline buildings are on that side of Oxford Street.
Sources
Every rate, threshold and formula on this page was verified against these primary sources. If a figure here disagrees with one of them, the source is right and we want to know.
- CMHC Rental Market Survey — average rents by bedroom type
- Statistics Canada — asking rent prices, table 46-10-0092-01
- CMHC — Identifying core housing need
- CMHC Housing Market Information Portal — London average rent by survey zone, October 2025
- CMHC — London rental market statistics summary by zone
- Statistics Canada — Census Profile 2021, London CMA
- Ontario — Residential rent increases