Latest ‘private room for rent’ proof Toronto's housing market is 'not OK'

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Finding housing in and around Toronto has increasingly become a challenge.

As rental costs soar across the GTA, desperate renters will settle for anything and landlords are taking advantage.

One listing of a “private room for rent” at Toronto’s Ice Condos, located at 12 and 14 York St., between Bremner Blvd. and Harbour St., sounds promising — but it’s clear the writer of the listing had a thesaurus handy.

The so-called four-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment supposedly comes “fully furnished” with “modern rooms at an affordable price.”

How much? $980 every four weeks — but do the math and that works out to be more than $1,062 a month, Toronto realtor Anya Ettinger clarified in her TikTok post.

“The Ice Condos does it again with this front closet listed for rent at $980/4 weeks — but don’t worry, its FULLY FURNISHED with a cot, bookshelf, and a clock,” she captioned her video.

While part of the ad’s description is accurate (a three-minute walk to Union Station and steps away from grocery stores, restaurants and pharmacies), it’s the “room” that has Ettinger laughing incredulously.

“This is the front closet! They put a bed in the front closet and then they put this Ikea bookshelf and this divider thing and now they’re calling this a bedroom,” she said of what she believes is actually a two-bedroom unit that they’ve “converted” into a four-bedroom.

“It’s probably like a two-plus den and then they made the den a bedroom and the closet a bedroom,” she explained.

“I honestly don’t have words for what’s going on in the rental market here like it’s gross.”

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This isn’t Ettinger’s first eye-opening post of a rental. She wants people to know that the reason so-called rooms like this get rented isn’t because there’s a demand for them; rather, the options are beyond limited.

“There is a MASSIVE shortage of housing and affordable housing so there will always be demand for rentals like this,” her caption read.

“The problem is that people need housing and waitlists for co-ops and for lower-income housing and for affordable housing are so long, people don’t have a choice,” she said in her TikTok.

“They need to rent something like this because there’s so many people that live here and there’s not enough housing and people need a roof over their heads,”Ettinger continued.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s OK because it’s not OK,” she added. “But it’s not as simple as ‘just don’t rent it, then they can’t get away with it.’

“People just don’t have a choice.”