09/21/2026
The latest available figures show inflation held steady in August, while rent inflation moved higher. Building permits and housing starts softened, rental vacancy tightened in Q2, and GTA new-home demand remained weak.
While released or updated this week, the reports cover different periods, including August, July and Q2 2026, and some figures are preliminary or based on institutional estimates. This is common with economic and real estate data, which is often published weeks or months after the reporting period.
General market information only — not investment or tax advice.
Canada’s Consumer Price Index rose 3.0% year over year in August, unchanged from July.
But rent inflation accelerated to 2.8% from 2.5%, while CPI excluding gasoline rose 2.4%.
Why it matters: The headline inflation rate was steady, but household-cost pressures increased across categories.
Source: Statistics Canada.
The value of Canadian building permits fell 17.3% month over month in July to $12.2 billion.
The residential decline was led by multi-unit permits, while Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s six-month housing-starts trend fell 1.3% in August to 244,149 units.
The signal: Near-term construction remains high by recent standards, but the forward pipeline is losing momentum.
Sources: Statistics Canada; CMHC. CMHC’s trend measure is a six-month moving average, not a single-month starts count.
Yardi reported Canada’s national apartment vacancy rate at 4.7% in Q2 2026, down 40 basis points from Q1 and ending a run of nine consecutive quarterly increases.
However, vacancy remained 60 basis points higher than a year earlier.
The signal: Some new supply is being absorbed, but rental conditions remain looser than they were a year ago.
Source: Yardi.
Yardi said average national in-place rent rose to $1,774 in Q2’26, up 2.2% year over year.
At the same time, new-lease rent growth was -0.6% year over year, meaning renewals, not newly signed leases, were carrying most of the increase.
Why it matters: The rental market is still growing, but pricing power looks weaker on vacant units than on existing tenancies.
Source: Yardi.
Greater Toronto Area new-home s