Most condo buyers never ask how many units in the building they're buying into are short-term rentals. In some downtown towers the answer is close to half.
We matched the City of Toronto's short-term rental registry, the licence every Airbnb-style host needs, against every condo building in the city. Ten buildings stand out. At 300 Front Street West, 299 of 684 units are registered as short-term rentals, 44% of the building. Parade II and Peter Street Condos are close behind at 40% and 39%.
The ten fall into two groups. Six sit within a kilometre of the Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena, with ordinary-sized units; the location does the work. The other three were built for it: Dundas Square Gardens and the two Yorkville Plaza buildings have between 42% and 54% of their units under 500 square feet, against 8.5% across the city. At Dundas Square Gardens, a quarter of the units are under 400.
The small units have paid for it. Since the 2022 peak, condos in the downtown core have lost about 24% of their value per square foot. The four small-unit towers have lost 29% to 35%. Five of the ten are worth more than 20% less per square foot than they were in 2019, while Toronto condos overall are down 4%.
The full report profiles all ten buildings: unit sizes against the city, price per square foot since 2014, rents by bedroom, and the share of each building that's rented rather than owner-occupied. It's the kind of information that never appears in a listing, which is exactly why we publish it.
Read the full report → Toronto's Airbnb condos
Every condo building on MoveSmartly.com shows its share of short-term rental units. It's one more thing we tell you that's not in the listing.