Cost of Living in Toronto

Anonymous on Dec 17, 2025:

You know that times are rough when an anonymous therapist is on a message board trying to psychoanalyze the board using ad hominem attacks. Canada is going through population decline with about 80,000 less than the previous quarter. Good riddance! Immigration was being used as a ponzi scheme to artificially boost the economy and real estate prices. Now watch home prices and rents go down further!

The economic system in Toronto requires a constant influx of newcomers as wage serfs and debt slaves in order to satiate the greed of the 1%, and the bureaucratic elite who defend the interests of the 1% (politicians, police).

So you get $2,000 a month pest infested apartments in crime-ridden ghettos, while average wages are about $2,000 a month after taxes. Don't be fooled by that inflated $4,800 a month after tax salary. That's the starter wages of the bureaucrats who are paid higher than the private sector. And unemployment is about 10% in Toronto, and more and more people are getting laid off and ending up on EI and welfare which pay a pittance.

I am a Canadian that left Canada seven years ago. I am not going to say where because I hope you stay in Canada which has become a frozen hellscape because of corruption. If you don't believe Canada is corrupt you might be suffering from a condition such as corruption blindness. Canada used mass immigrantion to create an army of debt slaves to prop-up GDP + asset prices. No government party can save the spiral downward. No amount of infrastructure spending can stop the future collapse unless the greedy banksters and politicians (all parties) decide to save their own country. Spoiler: they won't. If you are an in Canada (Canadian or immigrant) please stay there so you don't mess-up a country somewhere else.

Dear Dope-inder on Nov 19, 2025:

1 USD is about $1.40 Canadian dollars, and you can't compare NYC rent prices to Toronto rent prices without comparing jobs and wages in NYC (In NYC, there are way more millionaire professionals live and billionaires than Toronto).

What do you get in Toronto other than a nepotistic public sector, stagnant business growth, and even low-wage factory jobs are hard to find in Toronto right now. Toronto is built on a feudalistic economy where immigrants are fooled and lied to migrating to Canada in order to create more rental applicants and desperate people looking for any job (a larger unemployed labor pool means wages go down)

In NYC, even the high school burger flipper is earning at least US$16 ($CAD$22.40) an hour. Meanwhile, in Toronto Supervisors with university degrees are earning the same amount unless they are an overpaid bureaucrat like a teacher or cop.

The way Toronto is designed is that there are the 1% elites, the 5% investor class, and the 14% bureaucrat class while the remaining 80% have to compete for the low wage jobs and overpriced rentals.

What Canada is selling to immigrants abroad is a lie in order to keep the top 20% richer while everyone else remains poorer and in desperation.

For the people saying Toronto is a more expensive new york take about 5 seconds to do some research and you will find that the cost of the average apartment in Toronto is less than the average apartment in New york unless you are not smart enough to realize that 1 American dollar is about 2 Canadian dollars (Looking at you Americans who can't do basic grade 2 math :D)

It is true that a lot of women in Toronto dislike men.

The Toronto system just wants men to become docile and compliant worker bees, while the rich elites use the women as harems and one night stands.

And many women in Toronto are very hateful of average men that once you visit Toronto, you'll never want to return to that Gender war battlefield.

Men need not apply for jobs in Toronto.

Many employers give preference to women rather than men, even for bus driver and warehouse jobs. There are young women driving TTC buses while the man who has decades of experience is denied for the job.

How many women can lift 100lbs in a warehouse? Toronto is a feminist city, and men are not wanted there. Don't end up unemployed because the social safety nets have not caught up with the real cost of living in Toronto.

I have nothing good to say about Toronto. The city is designed to spend money with little in return. An overpriced mid-tier city that doesn't deserve the high cost of living and terrible job market.

You'll be wasting years of your life in Toronto with nothing to show for it. On the bright side, someone from a poor country can grind their adult years working until retirement and that's only if they remigrate to their homeland or a foreign country and live off CPP. Even then, that window of retirement abroad is closing in because Toronto is a trap and Canada is on a slow decline.

making use of the foodbank when absolutely necessary.

Oh great another Indian invader abusing the food bank system while being gainfully employed.

Once again, hopefully this comment will not be deleted. I disagree, unequivocally, with the notion that 'Canada is only for white women' and all the other sexist and racist rubbish comments in that vein. My experience of Canada, and Toronto, has been very different.
Also, I have worked all manner of jobs: cashier, garbage man, janitor, dishwasher, software programmer, software engineer (there's a difference), general labourer, forklift operator, sheeter operator, tutor, tax preparer, book-keeper, and a bunch more. And my experiences do not align, even remotely, with those of the people who have posted here.

The powers that be don't want prospective immigrants knowing that they will end up packing boxes in factories for minimum wage, while living like second class citizens.

Canada is only for white women. The white woman is treated like a God in Canada. White women are not investigated by police when she grapes a pet dog or non-white kids.

To: Aziz Ebrahim on Oct 07, 2025

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There is something horribly wrong with the majority of women in Toronto.

They hate men. Why shouldn't men hate Toronto women back? Oh wait...Justin Trudeau made it illegal to hate women using anti-terrorist laws. Fcuk Canada. I'm heading home to Kashmir despite the persecution by Modiji

Aziz Ebrahim, stop lying about India's Overseas Resident law.

There's nothing stopping one from remigrating to India as an ORI.

And the issue with Canadian women walking nude in public is that they weaponise their nudity and falsely accuse men, including brown men like you, as creeps and grapists which empower the racist right to attack non-white people.

Aizz on Aug 27, 2025,

You with your anecdotal BS. Toronto hosts a lot of pro-nude parades during the summer.

And how can you get a scholarship to attend UofT and end up as a warehouse worker?

You're lying, and should go back to India, Pajeet

Just something funny I realized about Toronto recently, compared to other cities in the world the mansions in the GTA are relatively cheap. No mansions in the GTA cost more than 40 million, although Drake spent more than 100 million on his mansion if he tried to sell he wouldn't get anything near that. Mansions in LA for instance can go for 200 million. But on the lower end a 400 square foot condo downtown goes for 800k. So the low end is very expensive compared to the rest of the world while while the high end is really cheap compared to the rest of the world. Just some food for thought about Toronto.

All discussions about that whether city-region is awful or not are long over and done. It's one of the world Titanics. Simply go to their Toronto Pearson Airport, and there's no need to get out and explore. That airport sums it up. That's what happens when 1. Too much immigration for what the place and culture was built to hold, 2. Over-diverse multiCULTural mess. You end up with an airport gate and nothing else.

One can't have a sustainable city if foreign labour is being used to drive down wages, and expect people to become atomized and exist just to pay for the basic needs.

In Toronto, you're barely getting above the 3rd notch of Maslow's basic needs. Shelter costs are so exorbitant, and as many complained below, the city is not cohesive and conducive for personal growth. It's like a hellhole and a purgatory, and many can't wait to have a nest egg and leave if it weren't for the exorbitant rents.

Toronto is not worth it.

No jobs. Salaries are low. Educated immigrants are competing for minimum wage factory jobs.

There is something strange with how gender relations are expected there in Toronto. It's like men are the underclass, the majority of women are the bureaucratic elite, and the political elites rule over everyone.

This leads to a chaotic society where immigrants from more socially stable and developing economies are stuck in an economic quagmire and social isolation. It's terrible.

A lot of international students from India unalive themselves after becoming a victim of the economic feudalism. Some guys get criminal records just for saying hello to women there, but because the woman might hold prejudice against the guy, she calls the cops who ruins his life with a criminal record.

You know how bad Toronto is when comments get monitored, flagged and censored more than any other major 1st world city. Toronto is a very bad place for entrepreneurs and go-getters and a paradise for the social interest groups and criminals.

Just read the growing number of Reddit posts from Toronto and Scarborough people cannot find a job or even have food to eat. Yesterday a report disclosed that about 400,000 Toronto residents don’t have a job

Low wages high rents and terrible dating scene. Move at your own risk

My salary gets me through the month and I can't have any savings. I live in a 1 room + 1 bathroom apartment that doesn't even have a kitchen.

I studied for 3 years through the lockdowns to get a better paying job, but for every single job there are at least 300 applicants.

Due to all the stress and economic problems, I recently had a hormonal imbalance and tried to find a doctor. After 14 months and 5 referrals I finally found a specialist. It turns out that my condition "isn't covered" by the government and I had to shell out $500 for every injection despite paying exorbitant taxes for the promise of "free" healthcare.

I used to work in another country and used to drive a brand new Nissan.

I thought that migrating to Canada would be mutually beneficial to both myself and the country.

It turns out that Canada is a scam. I came here with almost $90,000, spent everything, and now living paycheck to paycheck.

Now I'm looking for every opportunity to escape but can't even afford moving away. Avoid coming here at all costs.

If a place like Toronto is the country's largest city with the most things going on and "opportunity", and if a place like Ottawa is the country's capital city, then this is a red flag alert!
Canada has been surpassed by many countries and growing, and it's just too late.

They just want you to sell your properties and investments in your home country, and use the proceeds to pay for overpriced rent and food to make the Bridle Path, Forest Hill and Westmount elites richer. It's a s.c.a.m.

Current headlines indicate that nobody is buying Toronto condos anymore, despite the government bodypacking the country in recent years.

The Ponzi scheme is slowly falling apart. How can a city with more people than ever not have any money to pay higher rents and consume more consumables? Enjoy the decline.

Toronto is truly a smudged situation,

they’re in the middle of a housing, cost of living, and employment crisis and the government doubles immigration rates and jacks up international student admissions only exacerbating the existing issues, they have zero market competitiveness so their goods prices are through the roof, their housing prices only shoot upwards, it’s insane and I feel for the posters below and understand their anger.

You're just coming to Toronto to become a general labour wage serf.

Has anyone noticed that their newsfeed and YouTube feeds have a lot of videos about people complaining about Canada?

Local Canadian media, and even the BBC have recently reported that many people are leaving Canada. Given that about a quarter of the population lives in the Greater Toronto Area, maybe the posters below are right about the dismal state of affairs.

We have the internet accessible in almost every country of the world, and yet I still hear complaints from mainly people on a student visa, complaining how rents are high, and they can't find jobs to supplement their expenses while studying in Canada.

Canada is declining, and yet, people are fooled into coming into this big dump especially Toronto where rents are about C$2,500/month for a one-bedroom apartment. Petty crime is rising, unhoused people are sleeping in TTC subways because they can't find a rental, and there are so many social ills I can't post because it's explicit.

If you're a father who has a good job abroad, and is considered middle class in your country, and you have daughters, DO NOT ruin your life by coming to Canada, because poverty can turn good people into desperate situations.

"Rent in Toronto is, on average, 31.5% lower than in Singapore."

The majority of locals here get subsidies and government housing, not to mention that many of the rentals are expat rentals which skew the average paid locally.

Singapore salaries are higher because we are one of the financial capitals in a tiny city-state. In Canada, the joke is that surgeons clean toilets in homes owned by blue collar workers with a primary school education.

It would be nice if you could provide an overall percentage for the cost of living i.e. 3.2%

@ Ash

There are theories that the Eglinton CrossTown Line 5 is deliberately being delayed, because 1) more money for contractors, and 2) they are waiting for the new residents to populate the condos under construction along Thorncliffe Park to Kennedy station.

In other words, poor and working class people who live in this area do not get any benefits from this subway extension. For the past 10 years, small businesses were forced to close, while condo developers are building a lot of luxurious condos.

Toronto is becoming a city of haves and have nots

Toronto is big city which is attracting a lot people, jobs, cultures and ... every day.
So, Toronto Urban area should become much bigger. It's land area is around 2,300 to 2,500 sqkm. But it should become much bigger (bigger than 5,000 sqkm) and its metro system's length should be at least 1,000 km.

Amnoteor below,

Toronto treats everyone who isn't rich as a number, a cog in a machine, and a modern day serf. People have a right to complain about the high rents, decline in real wages and unnatural population growth which is affecting the cost of shelter, food and services.

Last month (December 2023), Canada added 100 jobs to the economy, mainly part-time net of full time job losses.

This was during the busy holiday season. 100 part-time jobs added in an economy of 40 million.

100 new jobs. January 2024 job stats may be worse. Who wants to move to a recession economy, and pay $2,500 a month to rent an apartment when full-time jobs don't exist for new people?

Rent is too much. House prices are too much.

The wages are not able to pay for the rent and home prices, leading to many people sharing rooms in the Greater Toronto Area. It's a modern day slum.

In Canada now and plan to leave.

Can't get a job, found out my college here likely won't lead to permeant residency, like ever.

Tuition is coming up for January 2024 and I can't pay and it doesn't lead to a PR card anyway so there's no point. Was living in a tent but now it's -1 celcius and it's too cold for me to remain outside with January and February temperatures getting colder. Heading home back to India broke cold and tired.

If there's any advice I have for anyone it's don't move to Canada. It is a scam.

It may have been good 10 years ago but that ship has firmly sailed. It is now a neo feudal hellscape. There is 0 ability to get ahead after high cost of living quality of life is much better in India. You can actually get a job, it's warm, family is around, food is better, etc.

This is late stage capitalism.

The economy works for an increasingly small set of stakeholders while everyone else is merely an indentured serf, including newcomers.

You just exist to pay rent to those who already owned rental properties. It's a Ponzi Scheme- Canada is a Ponzi scheme.

This has to be a national crisis if foreign students are living in homeless encampments (tent cities) across Toronto.

Why do people even bother moving to Canada from their comfortable homes to live in tents down by the river in freezing cold?

@ anon below:

Tell that to both immigrants and Canadians who want to leave Canada because of high rents and stagnant wages due to a poor job market. You're probably that Canadian Landlord vulture who openly admitted that he and his landlord friends prey on virgin girls when they want to let a room in their rooming houses.

It’s a fair deal for new immigrants. Either you bring a couple million capital or labour in exchange for your right to live in this beautiful country. It happened in the past, now and in future.

I do not believe that Toronto will lead to a good life for newcomers because of lack of well paying jobs.

My concern is that Canadian employers do not consider decades of international work experience and an advanced university degree for a job. For someone in their 30s and 40s, moving to Canada and having to redo high school credits, undergrad and postgrad to meet Canadian experience requirements sound like a money pit.

This is because no good job will be guaranteed at that time, and by the time you finish your education you'll be 40s and 50s applying for jobs with 20 something young Canadians.

This leads to many educated newcomers doing menial jobs that are not within their field of profession. The jobs are not enough to afford rent based on affordability criteria.

@ anon below:

White feminism ruined that guy's life. The Karens living in houses and working in comfy government jobs cry that they are disadvantaged more than the unemployable brown guy with special needs that he cannot function more than being a sign holder.

The white woman is the DEVIL in Canada. Brown men are entering HELL if they decide to migrate to Canada.

Who in the hell would now want to immigrate to Canada? Outrageous housing costs, which consume most of your income. One has to work at least two to three jobs just to try to keep from completely drowning economically. A healthcare system which is on life support. It is next to impossible to get a doctor. Emergency waits times at hospitals can range from 4 to 24 hours. Traffic from hell in all the major cities .... particularly Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The crushing cost of living. A political leader who is a complete fool who has basically destroyed the country in just 8 years. As if all of this wasn't bad enough ...... 5 months of winter from hell. Living in Canada is now an extreme struggle in every way imaginable. One will always struggle. One will always work like a dog. Furthermore, one will very likely fall into extreme debt in Canada just to survive. One has to pay outrageous taxes on their income, leaving them with about 50% of what they actually earn after they have paid all the combined taxes on everything that they buy or services that they use. Forget about ever being able to save money. Incomes are about 35% less than in other advanced countries for the same skilled job. One will never own a home. One will never be able to start a family. One will always freeze in the winter. Life in Canada has become an absolute hell. The Canadian dream is as dead as dead can be. It is no longer a country where one can earn a decent living, own a home and live a good life. On top of all of this, it has an authoritarian government which keeps passing new laws to reduce free speech and civil rights.

Europeans, even Ukrainians have higher standards of living. They won't as easily allow themselves to live like simpleton Indians. Indians are perfectly okay living like cockroaches with 39 other people in one house.

We shouldn't be expected to live like an Indian simpleton.

I have full empathy for newcomers and students who are the most receiving end and have long term impact

In Toronto, Indian students can't even afford a room with roommates anymore, they rent time periods in beds. Say there's a room with 9 bunk beds in it, one of the beds is rented from 12 to 8 pm to one student, then from 8 pm to 4 am to another student, then from 4 am to 12 to another, and it's still so expensive.

Even minimum-salary jobs are hard to get, for every job open there are 150-200 students applying, and minimum salary jobs will NOT get you $4000 a months, you'll be lucky to make 1200 after tax and commute expenses. It's a desperate situation.

If you studied and graduated in your home country's university and have a stable job in the your home country why do you have to move to Canada.

No problem working abroad but to be immigrant to other countries like Canada must be a suicide mission, because you will be downgrading your career working menial jobs. Docs who conducted surgeries in the UK are driving beck taxi or working in warehouses as genera labor. Thats the situation. Overqualified immigrants doing dead-end jobs in Canada. No future.

You would've been better off in your home country. But now you're grinding away in Toronto paying most of your paycheque in rent for a single room. What a pity that you placed yourself in this dire predicament.

Toronto is False Advertising.

People need to realize that the Canadian government lies when they promise an easy life here. it’s unfair to immigrants to be deceived . they come here with good intentions and quickly realize it’s not what they were told.

Can you imagine leaving your comfortable middle class job in your home country to pack boxes in Toronto, and stuck with no savings because of low wages and high expenses?

If you're middle-aged (40 to 55), with decades of work experience, professional education and worldly...

You're gonna regret moving to Canada.

Do you like packing boxes, working on assembly lines and doing dead-end jobs for minimum wage with no chance to go up the social ladder? Then be my guest and live in Toronto working for a pittance compared to the sky high rents.

Canadian govt is a scam it is design to lure people to the country with a promise of a great life.

100% true, the country’s govt is design and set to milk people with their hard earn money and little to no opportunity to move up instead of getting stuck to working a lowly paying jobs on construction or cleaning houses and building to working in food industry waitering to butchering poultry animals.

Leave or stay out of the country as early as you can. I realized Canadians are very polite but not very nice they will hear you but will not listen and give you what you want. Canadians pander to Karens and Permit Pattys.