The rent increase guideline will max out at 2.5 per cent for most of Ontario’s sitting residential tenants in 2024. In announcing the threshold for next year, Steve Clark, the provincial Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, notes that it is well below the current 5.9 per cent average inflation rate.

“Our government knows the cost of living continues to be a challenge for many Ontarians, including renters, which is why we are holding the rent increase guideline at 2.5 per cent,” he says. “This decision builds on the historic tenant protections contained in our recent Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants plan, and demonstrates our commitment to help tenants across the province.”

That legislation: addresses the process for allowing tenants to re-occupy a unit following a renovation; imposes a deadline for prescribed tenants to occupy a unit following an eviction to accommodate the landlord’s own use; and gives tenants the right to install air conditioning at their own cost.

The rent increase guideline for 2024 applies for sitting tenants of privately supplied residential rental units that came onto the market for occupancy before November 15, 2018. The starting point for all rents, and subsequent rent increases, is reset when a unit turns over to a new tenant.