Newcomer Housing & Transit Cost Explorer
Compare an auditable housing-and-transit baseline across 19 Canadian markets using CMHC 2025 two-bedroom purpose-built rents and current official transit costs.
Compare two cities
This is not a complete cost-of-living estimate. It intentionally includes only two large, auditable recurring costs: purpose-built 2-bedroom rent and regular adult public transit.
| City | 2025 avg. 2BR rent | Monthly transit baseline | Annual housing + transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Ontario | $2,046 | $155.10 | $26,413.20 |
| Vancouver British Columbia | $2,363 | $117.20 | $29,762.40 |
| Calgary Alberta | $1,914 | $126.00 | $24,480.00 |
| Montréal Quebec | $1,346 | $100.00 | $17,352.00 |
| Ottawa Ontario | $1,926 | $138.50 | $24,774.00 |
| Edmonton Alberta | $1,603 | $102.00 | $20,460.00 |
| Winnipeg Manitoba | $1,571 | $119.35 | $20,284.20 |
| Halifax Nova Scotia | $1,826 | $90.00 | $22,992.00 |
| Victoria British Columbia | $2,120 | $85.00 | $26,460.00 |
| Saskatoon Saskatchewan | $1,548 | $91.00 | $19,668.00 |
| Regina Saskatchewan | $1,473 | $97.00 | $18,840.00 |
| Hamilton Ontario | $1,656 | $125.40 | $21,376.80 |
| London Ontario | $1,657 | $112.00 | $21,228.00 |
| St. Catharines–Niagara Ontario | $1,527 | $100.00 | $19,524.00 |
| Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo Ontario | $1,832 | $104.00 | $23,232.00 |
| Windsor Ontario | $1,454 | $124.00 | $18,936.00 |
| Oshawa Ontario | $1,754 | $138.24 | $22,706.88 |
| Gatineau Quebec | $1,460 | $116.50 | $18,918.00 |
| Québec City Quebec | $1,277 | $102.50 | $16,554.00 |
What this explorer measures
For housing, we use CMHC’s 2025 average rent for a two-bedroom purpose-built rental apartment in each census metropolitan area. For transit, we use a regular adult monthly pass or monthly fare cap from the local transit authority as of September 2026. Multiplying those two recurring costs by 12 creates a transparent annual benchmark.
Why we do not call it a full cost-of-living calculator
Food, utilities, childcare, car ownership, insurance, taxes and entertainment vary widely by household and are harder to compare consistently from one authoritative city-level dataset. Adding speculative numbers would make the score look more complete while making it less auditable. Use the First-Year Cost Calculator to layer your own non-housing expenses onto a city choice.
Turn the city benchmark into a landing budget
Every city in this explorer now also has a separate interactive moving-budget page that lets you change rent, months of runway, non-housing costs, setup expenses and emergency cash. Start from the table above, open a city guide, then use its linked “How much money do I need to move to…” calculator.
Research methodology
Read the full 2026 Housing & Transit Cost Index methodology and rankings →