Renting vs buying in Ottawa
Ottawa is the flattest housing market of the five cities on this site and the one with the most new rental supply in half a century, which makes this a genuinely open question rather than a rhetorical one. Here is the arithmetic — including the property tax figure that takes a paragraph to explain — and then the part the arithmetic misses.
The short answer
The composite MLS® benchmark home in Ottawa is about $634,000 as of July 2026, down 0.5% on the year, and a three-bedroom purpose-built apartment rents for an average of $2,090. Run those two against each other at a 1.5% appreciation assumption and renting wins for years — Ontario's costs of getting in and getting out are the reason, not the price.
Both ends of an Ontario transaction are expensive. The land transfer tax on that home is $9,155, and selling costs roughly 5.8% once 13% HST is added to the commission — about $36,800. That is close to $46,000 of pure friction on a $634,000 home, which is what pushes the break-even year out past most people's five-year plan.
The rental side moved too. Roughly 5,000 purpose-built units were completed in Ottawa in 2025, the largest addition in nearly fifty years, and vacancy rose to 2.9%. But the slack is all at the top: CMHC found vacancy around 7% in units renting above $2,400 and under 1% below $1,100. A renter shopping at the top of the market has real negotiating room here. A renter shopping at the bottom has none, and the 2.1% guideline that protects them only applies if the building was first occupied before 15 November 2018.
The calculator below opens with real Ottawa figures and every one of them is editable. One warning specific to this market: the property tax rate is set to 0.83% of market value, not the ~1.26% the City levies, because Ontario assesses on frozen 2016 values and this model multiplies a present-day price. The workings are in the questions below.
Your situation
Compare like for like — the rent on somewhere you would actually be willing to live, not the cheapest listing in the city. Drop the price to around $300,000 and the rent to a one-bedroom figure to compare apartments instead, and put the condo fee in under Assumptions.
20.0% down. The renter starts with this plus closing costs — $139,155 — invested instead.
The single biggest lever. Buying costs a lot to enter and a lot to exit, and only time amortizes that away.
Assumptions — every one of them editable
Ottawa's composite benchmark is down 0.5% year over year — detached up 0.7%, townhouses down 5.1%, apartments down 5.2%. Try a negative number for a condo.
What the renter earns on the down payment they never spent. This is the comparison's hidden lever — a renter who spends it instead of investing it does far worse than this model shows.
Ontario caps annual increases at 2.1% for 2026, but only in units first occupied before 15 November 2018. Newer buildings have no cap at all.
Roofs, furnaces, fences, hail. Averaged out it is a real cost even in the years nothing breaks.
Zero for a detached house. Ottawa's fees track the building's age more than its address: a lot of the 1970s and 1980s stock still bundles heat and water into the fee, which makes it look high until you compare it against a newer building's separate utility bills.
Commission and legal fees, charged against the price you eventually sell at. The owner's net worth below is after this comes off.
Net worth, side by side
The buyer's line is home value minus what is still owed minus the cost of selling, plus anything they invested in months when owning was cheaper. The renter's line is one portfolio: the down payment and closing costs they never spent, plus the monthly difference whenever renting is cheaper.
Show the year-by-year figures
| Year | Owner | Renter | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $110,544 | $169,433 | −$58,889 |
| 2 | $131,701 | $200,841 | −$69,140 |
| 3 | $153,524 | $233,423 | −$79,900 |
| 4 | $176,038 | $267,228 | −$91,191 |
| 5 | $199,269 | $302,304 | −$103,036 |
| 6 | $223,245 | $338,703 | −$115,458 |
| 7 | $247,993 | $376,477 | −$128,483 |
| 8 | $273,545 | $415,683 | −$142,137 |
| 9 | $299,931 | $456,378 | −$156,447 |
| 10 | $327,183 | $498,624 | −$171,441 |
| 11 | $355,335 | $542,484 | −$187,149 |
| 12 | $384,422 | $588,024 | −$203,602 |
| 13 | $414,480 | $635,313 | −$220,833 |
| 14 | $445,548 | $684,423 | −$238,876 |
| 15 | $477,664 | $735,430 | −$257,766 |
| 16 | $510,872 | $788,413 | −$277,541 |
| 17 | $545,212 | $843,453 | −$298,240 |
| 18 | $580,731 | $900,636 | −$319,905 |
| 19 | $617,475 | $960,052 | −$342,577 |
| 20 | $655,493 | $1,021,795 | −$366,302 |
| 21 | $694,836 | $1,085,963 | −$391,127 |
| 22 | $735,556 | $1,152,658 | −$417,102 |
| 23 | $777,709 | $1,221,986 | −$444,277 |
| 24 | $821,353 | $1,294,060 | −$472,707 |
| 25 | $866,545 | $1,368,995 | −$502,450 |
- The mortgage is assumed to renew at the same rate. At the end of the first term you would still owe $444,115.
- Neither household is credited with tax on their investments, and the buyer's gain on a principal residence is tax-free while the renter's portfolio may not be.
Questions people actually ask
Is it worth buying in Ottawa right now?
This is the flattest of the five markets on this site, which makes the answer unusually sensitive to how long you stay. The composite benchmark is about $634,000 as of July 2026 and it is down 0.5% on the year — with detached up 0.7% but apartments down 5.2% and townhouses down 5.1%. Meanwhile roughly 5,000 purpose-built rental units were completed in 2025, the largest addition in nearly fifty years, and the vacancy rate rose to 2.9%. So both sides of the trade got slightly better for the buyer and slightly better for the renter at the same time. Against a three-bedroom purpose-built rent of $2,090 a month, a benchmark-priced home does not pencil quickly. Against the $385,500 apartment benchmark and a two-bedroom rent of $1,916, it is much closer — but that is also the segment whose price is falling fastest.
How long do you have to stay for buying to beat renting in Ottawa?
Longer than the price alone suggests, because Ontario is expensive at both ends of a transaction. Getting in costs $9,155 in land transfer tax on the benchmark home plus a lawyer, title insurance and an inspection — about $12,400 all in, and more if you put down less than 20%, because the 8% provincial sales tax on the mortgage insurance premium is another $1,906 in cash. Getting out costs about 5.8%: roughly 5% commission plus 13% HST on it, or about $36,800 at today's benchmark. At a 1.5% appreciation assumption those two ends take the better part of a decade to earn back, and a stay under five years rarely pencils. A first-time buyer claiming the full $4,000 provincial refund shortens it, but not by years.
Does Ontario have rent control?
Only in older buildings, and the exception is doing more work in Ottawa than almost anywhere. The province caps annual increases for sitting tenants — 2.1% for 2026 — but only in units first occupied before 15 November 2018. Everything built since is uncapped. That matters here because Ottawa's supply boom is entirely post-2018 stock: CMHC put the average rent in buildings completed in 2000 or later at $2,320 against $1,529 in buildings from before 1960. If you rent a new unit, the guideline in the calculator does not protect you and you should raise the rent-growth input. If you rent an old one, you are probably paying below market and the cap is worth a great deal — which is exactly why turnover in Ottawa's cheaper stock is so low. CMHC found vacancy under 1% in units renting below $1,100 and around 7% above $2,400.
What are the closing costs on an Ottawa home?
The land transfer tax dominates: 0.5% on the first $55,000, 1% to $250,000, 1.5% to $400,000 and 2% above that, with a 2.5% top band over $2,000,000 that only applies to land holding one or two single-family residences. On a $634,000 home that is $9,155; on a $385,500 apartment it is $4,258. A first-time buyer gets up to $4,000 of it back, which wipes out the tax entirely below $368,000. Add a lawyer, title insurance and an inspection and a realistic total is about $12,400. Ottawa is not Toronto: there is no municipal land transfer tax here, which is worth roughly another $9,000 on the same purchase.
How much do you need for a down payment in Ottawa?
On the benchmark home, legally 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the portion above it — $38,400. At $634,000 the benchmark sits a long way below the $1.5 million line where mortgage default insurance disappears and 20% down becomes mandatory, so the insured route is genuinely available across almost the whole Ottawa market. Two Ontario caveats. The premium at that down payment is 4.00% of the loan, or $23,824, which is added to the mortgage; and the 8% provincial sales tax on it, $1,906, is payable in cash at closing and cannot be borrowed. If you are a first-time buyer, the 30-year insured amortization is available too, and the mortgage calculator will show what it does to both the payment and the total interest.
Why does this page say 0.83% property tax when my Ottawa tax bill works out to 1.26%?
Because Ontario has not reassessed property since 2016. The City levies its 2026 rate against a Current Value Assessment frozen at 1 January 2016 values, and the province has deferred every reassessment since with no timeline for the next one. The City's own 2026 tax policy report puts the average urban Ottawa home at an assessed value of $415,000 and its 2026 municipal increase at $184; add the province's 0.153% education levy on the same $415,000 and the all-in bill is about $5,246. That is 1.26% of the assessment and 0.83% of the $634,000 the same sort of home costs today. This calculator starts from a market price, so it has to use the market rate — feeding it the rate printed on your bill would overstate the tax by about half. It is the one figure on this page that is calculated rather than quoted, and it is the reason Ottawa still has the lowest municipal taxes of Ontario's ten largest cities despite the highest-looking rate.
Does this calculator favour renting or buying?
Neither, by construction. Both households start with exactly the same cash. Whichever of them has the cheaper month invests the difference — most calculators credit only the renter with that, which quietly tilts every result toward renting. The buyer's net worth is also shown after the cost of selling, so it is money they could actually walk away with rather than a paper figure.
What is the calculator not accounting for?
Tax. A principal residence's gain is tax-free in Canada while the renter's portfolio generally is not, which favours buying, and neither side is modelled with a TFSA or RRSP. It also assumes the mortgage renews at the same rate for its whole life. And it cannot price the two things that decide a lot of real Ottawa moves: the federal government, whose return-to-office and headcount decisions move demand in this city in a way no other Canadian market experiences, and the Greenbelt, which is why a Barrhaven or Orléans address is cheaper per square foot and longer to commute from than the map suggests. The unopened Line 1 east extension is a live version of the same problem — the value of an Orléans address partly depends on a date nobody has announced.
Which figures here are estimates
The prices, rents, transfer tax and the City's own tax figures above come from published sources, each one listed below with the period it describes. These do not:
- The property tax rate — uniquely on this site. Ontario levies against a 2016 assessment, so the 0.83% used here is calculated from the City's own average bill and the benchmark price rather than quoted from a by-law. The workings are in the note beside the figure and in the questions below.
- Legal fees, title insurance and the home inspection — no Ontario body publishes a tariff, so these are planning figures.
- Condo fees and home and tenant insurance — industry ranges, not published statistics. An Ottawa condo fee varies more with the building's age than with its address, because the older stock still bundles heat and water.
- Appreciation, rent growth, cost inflation and investment returns — assumptions about the future, and the inputs most worth changing. Rent growth is set above Ontario's 2.1% guideline on purpose, because the guideline does not touch any building first occupied after 14 November 2018.
If you want the payment side on its own — frequencies, prepayments, the balance at renewal, the premium tax — the mortgage calculator covers it in more detail. To work out where rather than whether, start with the neighbourhood guides.
Sources
- MLS® Home Price Index — Ottawa Real Estate Board, July 2026 · Canadian Real Estate Association / Ottawa Real Estate Board · retrieved Supports: Composite MLS® HPI benchmark of $634,000 in July 2026, down 0.5% year over year, Single-family benchmark of $725,000, up 0.7% year over year, Townhouse and row benchmark of $542,500, down 5.1% year over year, Apartment benchmark of $385,500, down 5.2% year over year, 1,325 sales and 4,678 active listings in July 2026
- Rental Market Survey — Ottawa, average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Ottawa average purpose-built rents of $1,332 studio, $1,593 one-bedroom, $1,916 two-bedroom and $2,090 three-bedroom-plus, An overall average of $1,743 across 89,170 purpose-built units, Year-over-year increases of 3.4% on one- and two-bedroom units and 3.9% overall, Average rent of $2,320 in buildings completed in 2000 or later against $1,529 in buildings from before 1960
- Rental Market Statistics Summary — Ottawa (CV), October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: City of Ottawa purpose-built vacancy rate of 2.9% across 86,550 units, City of Ottawa average rent of $1,741 and median rent of $1,675
- 2026 Tax Policy and Other Revenue Matters · City of Ottawa, Revenue Services · retrieved Supports: Ontario's last province-wide reassessment was completed in 2016 and municipalities rely on 2016 assessment values for the 2026 tax year, The average urban Ottawa home is assessed at $415,000, A 2026 net municipal increase of $184 on that home — $166 from the 3.75% budget increase and $18 from the multi-residential ratio change, The 2026 budget was approved on 10 December 2025 with a 3.75% overall municipal tax increase, Ottawa's 2025 average municipal taxes on a representative two-storey detached house were $5,490, the lowest of Ontario's ten largest municipalities
- Education property tax rates · Government of Ontario · retrieved Supports: The residential education tax rate of 0.153% of assessed value, unchanged since 2020
- Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
- Regulations amending the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2025-55) · Canada Gazette, Part II · retrieved Supports: The $1.5 million insured price cap, 30-year amortization for first-time buyers and new builds
- Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · retrieved Supports: The qualifying rate of the contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%
- Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks · Bank of Canada · retrieved Supports: The default mortgage rate of 4.34%, uninsured five-year-plus fixed, funds advanced May 2026
- Calculating Land Transfer Tax · Ontario Ministry of Finance · retrieved Supports: Provincial transfer tax brackets, The conditional 2.5% band
- Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees · City of Toronto · retrieved Supports: Toronto municipal transfer tax brackets, First-time buyer rebate
- Residential rent increases · Government of Ontario · retrieved Supports: 2026 rent increase guideline of 2.1%, The 2018 occupancy exemption
- Retail Sales Tax · Government of Ontario · retrieved Supports: 8% retail sales tax on insurance premiums
These are estimates built from published figures, not a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice. Rates, premiums and provincial rules change; confirm anything you plan to act on with a mortgage professional and read the sourcing methodology.