It's only growing more expensive to put a roof over your head in Toronto, and anyone signing a lease to rent a unit in the city or surrounding region this summer will have to fork over quite a bit more than the going rates were just one year earlier.

Greater Toronto Area average monthly rental prices experienced a shocking spike in July 2022, surging by 19.3 per cent year-over-year to $2,482, according to the latest GTA rent report from Bullpen Research & Consulting and TorontoRentals.com.

That puts average rents back above pre-pandemic levels, and experts see no signs of prices cooling any time soon.

The average monthly rent across all unit types was a comparatively cheap $2,080 in July 2021, meaning prices in the region have increased by over $400. Factor in the out-of-control inflation plaguing much of the world, and that $400 in 2021 is actually worth $430.36 in 2021 dollars.

In Toronto proper, it now costs an average of $2,667 per month to rent a unit, the highest price in the region, and an alarming 25 per cent increase over July 2021. That's about $525.

"The Greater Toronto Area continues to see unprecedented rent growth, with monthly increases exceeding 3 per cent in May, June and July," said Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research & Consulting

"The average rent in the GTA in July of $2,482 per month has now topped the previous market-high recorded in November 2019 of $2,460."

High demand and competition in downtown Toronto translated to dramatic price increases in certain pockets.

The M5V postal code in Toronto's Entertainment District and King West neighbourhoods recorded an unbelievable 43 per cent annual rent increase to a Manhattanesque $3,203 per month in July.

On the month-to-month scale, GTA-wide rents increased by 3.3 per cent in July. It doesn't seem like a massive increase on the surface compared to the year-over-year figures, but it comes on the heels of a 3.1 per cent increase in June and a 5.7 increase in May.

The rent report stresses the abnormality of these increases, stating that most major cities don't even witness rental price growth of three per cent in a full year.

Myers expects "outsized rent increases over the next few months," attributing price growth projections to "further interest rate hikes coming, uncertainty in the ownership market, and the high-demand fall rental season upcoming."