Anyone interested in knowing what their neighbours pay in rent each month may be able to find out through a growing, crowdsourced registry that invites renters across the province to submit their rents to a free, open database designed to increase transparency in the rental market.
About two dozen renters from Cambridge have already submitted their rents since Tuesday's launch of the Rental Registry in Ontario.
The data can be viewed through an interactive map, so others can compare prices around them.
Over 6,000 people have put their rent prices into the site across the province.
"We see that a lot of people are extremely curious and excited about the information that we are putting in there," said Adam Mongrain, the director of housing policy at Vivre en Ville, a Quebec-based non-profit spearheading the effort.
"Submissions are coming in by the hundreds."
The initiative seeks to tackle the unprecedented surge in rent prices while providing invaluable data to assess the impact of various housing policies, says a press release.
By clicking on an interactive map for Cambridge, users can see that tenants living at 584 Coronation Blvd. pay $750 a month for a two-bedroom single detached home, while the resident of a one-bedroom condo in the Gaslight District towers pays $2,100 a month.
Vivre en Ville is working with the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute, the Angus Reid Institute and the University of Toronto on the site.
Mongrain said the point is that while it's good information to have for consumers, it's meant to be a tool for government.
A site was first launched in Quebec in May.
In Quebec, the law states when you move into a new apartment, the landlord must disclose the lowest price paid for the same unit in the previous 12 months.
But Mongrain said there's no way to check if that information is provided, or if the information is good.
"We're entirely reliant on an honour system," he said.
So a registry site was built. And while that was happening, Mongrain said they spoke with people, particularly economists, across the country about opportunities beyond Quebec.
"Everyone made the point that this helps no matter where you are," he said.
So, one was built for Ontario.
Mongrain said for markets to work properly, sellers and buyers have to know the same thing. And without a rental registry, they simply don't.
"We don't see what the units were renting out used to cost," he said. "And that's validated with the Angus Reid we commissioned for Ontario, where we see that people have moved in the last year, and seen on average increases in rent of 34 per cent (for existing units)."
In speaking with economists, Mongrain said it will help keep prices stable, and put a dampener on rent inflation.
According to a June report by the popular rental website Rentals.ca, ranking major cities across Canada, rents in Cambridge saw significant gains over a previous report.
Out of 35 cities, Cambridge landed in the middle at 16 for the highest average monthly rent in May for a one-bedroom at $1,953 and at 18 for average monthly rent for a two-bedroom at $2,350.
In September's report from Rentals.ca, nearby Kitchener saw the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment stabilize at $1,935.
Cambridge isn't listed in the latest report. The average price for a one-bedroom apartment in Ontario in the September report is $2,294.
Although the Rental Registry is self-populated and does not vet submissions, anyone submitting their rent prices does have to register.
But it's just a mere snapshot, and Mongrain admits it's not enough to have a representative sample of the whole market.
"Getting actual factual data about the state of the rental market is crucial for policymakers to actually act in step with the reality," he said.
He said it can lead to better policy, and better action from public actors because they're more informed with what's going on.
With files from Mark Pare at GuelphToday.com. and Joe McGinty at CambridgeToday.ca.
