An Ontario co-op term is four months. Almost nothing in the Toronto rental market is. Annual leases want a year, short-stay rentals are priced by the week for tourists, and subletting from a stranger means trusting someone who will be in another country by the time anything goes wrong.
The four-month problem
Placements run January to April, May to August, September to December. A twelve-month lease means paying for eight months you are not there, or finding someone to take it over — which is your problem to solve, in a city you have just arrived in.
The shortest lease here is four months and it is available all year round, not only across the summer. It is the same standard lease as everyone else signs; it simply ends when your term does.
What a term actually costs
Work it out for the whole placement, not per week. Rooms start at $205 a week and the rate covers hydro, heat, air conditioning, water and a minimum 1 Gbps connection. Add the $200 processing fee at application and the $150 key deposit at signing, which returns when you hand the keys back.
Then compare that with the alternative: a furnished short-stay rental billed at tourist rates for sixteen weeks, or an unfurnished apartment where you buy a bed, a desk and a kitchen you will sell at a loss in August. The room types page has the weekly and monthly figures for all five.
Arrive with a suitcase
Every room is furnished and every room has a window. The kitchen is equipped — fridge, oven, microwave, dishwasher, kettle, pans, plates, cutlery. The internet is already installed and paid for.
For a sixteen-week stay this is the difference between the placement and a furniture-buying project. You land, you get a key card at the desk, and you cook dinner the same night.
Getting to work
Line 6 Finch West runs from a stop about five minutes away, west to Humber College and east to Finch West Station on Line 1. If your placement is in North York, along the Finch corridor or out towards Vaughan, that is a short commute on a new line.
If it is downtown, allow fifty-five minutes to an hour each way. That is a real cost over four months and it is better known before you sign. The 89 Weston bus also runs south to Weston GO and the UP Express.
Book ahead of your term, not into it
Rooms for a term start go early, and the cheapest types go first. If you are starting in May, look in February. September, look in June. January, look in October.
You can book a viewing before you arrive in the city, and the application is digital end to end.
The rest of the field guide
- Rooms for rent — Renting a room
- Student housing — Student housing
- Co-living — Choosing co-living
- Roommates — Living with roommates
