The average GTA condo made a $63 monthly rental profit in 2020, according to a research report.
“Using payment data on all registered mortgage loans on rental units and adding in condo fees and property taxes, the average unit had ownership carrying costs of $2,077 per month. For these same units, the average achieved rent after completion was $2,140, leaving a small positive cash flow,” said the report from Urbanation’s Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation, and Benjamin Tal, CIBC Capital Markets’ deputy chief economist.
Sixty-three percent of investors in the GTA were cash flow neutral or positive last year, up from 56% in 2017. Although using credit vehicles, including HELOCs, on title would slash the share of cash flow positive investors, the report noted that many investors don’t require mortgages at all. In fact, low interest rates mean that about half of mortgage payments during the first year go towards the principal on a 30-year amortization. For the average GTA investor—the average age of an investor who closed on a condo last year was 47—principal repayment becomes more favourable with each passing year.
Investors who purchased presale condo units fared better from a cash flow standpoint than landlords who bought resale units and leased them in 2020, with 80% of the latter becoming cash-flow negative.
“In fact, more than half of all condo investors were cash flow positive by up to $600 per month and less than 15% were cash-flow negative by more than $400 per month. Those that were cash-flow negative by $1,000 or more per month represented just 5% of investors.”
The average unit price was $415,175 with an 85% loan-to-value at closing, and among investors with positive cash flow, their average net income was close to $400, up from over $360 in 2017. However, larger units' cash flowed negatively.
“In terms of unit type, there was a clear negative correlation between the size of the unit and the amount of cash flow, with studios performing best but still only representing 6% of the market. Only three-bedroom units had average negative cash flow, although these larger units comprised only 2% of rental investments.”
