Average Cap Rate in London

A 1.1-point vacancy jump, with rent still climbing

CMHC's Rental Market Survey data tables for London show the purpose-built private apartment vacancy rate rising from 2.9% in October 2024 to 4.0% in October 2025 — a 1.1-percentage-point jump, the steepest one-year vacancy move among the Ontario cities in this batch. Despite that, average rent across all bedroom types still climbed from C$1,446 to C$1,534, a 6.1% year-over-year increase. Rising vacancy with rent still growing this fast suggests London absorbed a wave of new purpose-built supply that has not yet fully leased up, rather than a market where demand is actually softening.

London's asking-to-paid rent gap

Statistics Canada's experimental asking-and-paid-rent series (table 46-10-0092-01) recorded London's 2-bedroom apartment average asking rent at C$1,920 for the 2026 Q2 reference period, against an average paid rent of C$1,560 — a gap of C$360, or 18.75%. That is close to Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo's 18.9% gap, suggesting the two Southwestern Ontario markets share a similar pattern of in-place rent lagging what current listings ask, even though London's absolute rent levels sit below K-W's on both measures.

Ontario's guideline applies here too — with the same 2018 cutoff

Ontario's 2026 guideline caps most sitting tenants' rent increases at 2.1% without Landlord and Tenant Board approval. Against London's measured 6.1% average rent increase, the gap between the guideline and market-level rent growth is wider here than in K-W — meaning a larger share of London's rent growth has to be coming from turnover and from post-2018 buildings exempt from rent control, since renewals on older stock are capped at 2.1% regardless of how fast the surrounding market is moving.

As in every Ontario CMA, any London unit first occupied for residential purposes after November 15, 2018 falls outside the guideline entirely — a distinction that matters more here than in an Ontario market with slower rent growth, since it accounts for a proportionally larger share of the 6.1% headline number.

Ontario land transfer tax on a London purchase

London, like Kitchener-Waterloo, levies no municipal land transfer tax — only Ontario's provincial LTT applies. Per the province's bracket schedule (0.5% to C$55,000; 1.0% from C$55,000 to C$250,000; 1.5% from C$250,000 to C$400,000; 2.0% above C$400,000), a C$450,000 London purchase — closer to London's lower average price point than the C$650,000 example used for K-W — works out to: C$55,000 × 0.5% = C$275, plus (C$250,000 − C$55,000) × 1.0% = C$1,950, plus (C$400,000 − C$250,000) × 1.5% = C$2,250, plus (C$450,000 − C$400,000) × 2.0% = C$1,000. Total Ontario LTT = C$5,475.

A qualifying first-time buyer can apply Ontario's land transfer tax refund — up to C$4,000, for purchasers at least 18, who have never owned an eligible home anywhere in the world, will occupy within 9 months, and (since January 1, 2017) are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Applied here, a first-time buyer's C$5,475 LTT bill on this example London purchase drops to C$1,475 net.