Updated September 2026
This page is deliberately not a repeat of the Canada page with the province name swapped in — Ontario has its own landlord-tenant regulatory framework that directly affects how you should model a rental property's future income, which is a genuinely different angle from the federal mortgage and tax topics covered there.
Ontario sets an annual rent increase guideline — a maximum percentage by which a landlord can raise rent for an existing tenant in a given calendar year without applying to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) for an above-guideline increase. This guideline is announced annually and varies year to year with inflation-linked formulas set by the province, so it should not be assumed to match the calculator's default rent growth assumption (3%, a general planning placeholder) — check the current guideline percentage directly from the Ontario government before setting your projection's growth rate for an existing-tenant unit.
Rent control in Ontario generally does not apply to most residential units first occupied for residential purposes on or after November 15, 2018 — meaning newer construction is generally exempt from the annual guideline limit and can be re-priced more freely between tenancies or at renewal, subject to normal notice requirements. This exemption date is a real, material fact that changes how aggressively you can model rent growth for a specific property: a pre-2018-occupancy unit with a long-tenured tenant is meaningfully guideline-constrained in a way a newer exempt building isn't. Confirm a specific property's occupancy history and exemption status before assuming either scenario.
Even for guideline-controlled units, rent can generally be reset to market rate once a tenancy ends and a new tenant moves in — the guideline constrains increases within a continuing tenancy, not what you can charge a brand-new tenant. This is a meaningful consideration for underwriting: a unit with long-tenured, below-market-rent tenants may show weaker current NOI than its true market-rate earning power, which matters when comparing the calculator's cap rate output on that property's current NOI against what the same unit could earn at a market-rate re-lease.
Ontario handles residential landlord-tenant disputes, including eviction proceedings, through the LTB rather than the regular court system. This process has its own timelines, required notice periods and forms, and has at various points experienced significant application backlogs — a practical consideration for cash flow modeling, since a non-paying or holdover tenant in Ontario can mean a longer-than-expected gap before regaining possession of a unit compared to jurisdictions with faster eviction processes. This is worth reflecting in a more conservative vacancy assumption (see the vacancy and maintenance page) for Ontario rentals specifically, particularly if you don't yet have your own track record screening and managing tenants there.
Beyond Ontario's provincial land transfer tax (covered on the Canada page), the City of Toronto levies its own additional municipal land transfer tax on properties within city limits — meaning a Toronto purchase can face a meaningfully larger combined one-time transfer tax than the same price property elsewhere in the province. Both taxes belong in the calculator's "closing costs" field for an accurate total-cash-invested and cash-on-cash figure.
For an Ontario property: use your actual mortgage terms (see the Canada page for federal-level mortgage considerations), include both applicable land transfer taxes in closing costs, set a realistic rent growth rate that reflects the guideline (if the unit is guideline-controlled) or a market-based estimate (if it's exempt), and consider a somewhat more conservative vacancy percentage to account for LTB process timelines on any disputed tenancy.
Does the rent guideline apply to commercial or short-term rentals? No — it applies specifically to most long-term residential tenancies; commercial leases and short-term/vacation rentals are governed differently.
Can a landlord always raise rent to the guideline amount every year? The guideline sets a maximum, not a guarantee — actual increases are still subject to proper notice requirements and, for above-guideline increases, an LTB application process.
Where do I find the current year's guideline percentage? The Ontario government publishes it annually — search the current year plus "Ontario rent increase guideline" for the official figure, since it changes yearly.
This page is educational only, not legal advice. Ontario landlord-tenant law changes and specific situations vary — consult the official Landlord and Tenant Board resources or a qualified Ontario paralegal/lawyer for your specific situation.