Ontario-backed fund paid $518K a unit for unsold Toronto condos, near resale prices (2026)

High Art Capital's $1.3-billion, Ontario-backed condo fund paid an average of $518,000 a unit for its first 43 unsold condos, at the Line 5 towers near Yonge and Eglinton in midtown Toronto. That is within 4% of what one-bedroom resale condos ask in the City of Toronto ($509,900) and in the surrounding Mount Pleasant West neighbourhood ($539,000), according to Princeps data, and far below the $945,000 median CMHC recorded for completed, unsold new apartments in the Toronto area in August 2026. The first big buyer of Toronto's unsold condos paid resale-level prices.

High Art's GTA Rental and Affordable Housing Initiative is backed by up to $300 million in financing from the Building Ontario Fund, the province's infrastructure investment agency. The plan is to buy about 2,200 unsold condos, rent them out, and sell most of them after at least five years. About 550 units are to stay affordable rentals in perpetuity. The Line 5 purchase, reported by The Globe and Mail on September 22, 2026, is the fund's first.

Key takeaways, as of October 1, 2026:

• The fund paid $22.3 million for 43 unsold units at Line 5, 117 to 127 Broadway Avenue: an average of $518,000 each.
• One-bedroom condos listed for sale in the City of Toronto from July to September 2026 asked a median $509,900, and in Mount Pleasant West $539,000, according to Princeps data.
• CMHC's August 2026 median for completed, unsold apartments in the Toronto CMA was $945,000, and new apartments sold that month had a median of $800,000. Both medians cover new units of every size.
• One-bedrooms at Line 5 ask a median $2,150 a month in rent, below the $2,400 a union leader cited for the area.
• The fund's 2,200-unit target is more than twice the 931 completed, unsold condo units CMHC counted in the Toronto CMA in August 2026.

The fund paid resale-level prices for new condos

CMHC's market absorption statistics for August 2026 show a median price of $945,000 for the 906 completed, unsold apartments in the Toronto CMA, and four in five of them were priced above $770,000. New apartments counted as sold that month had a median price of $800,000; most of the units CMHC counted as absorbed that month had been sold before completion (1,928 of 2,096 row and apartment units). Both medians cover new units of every size, so they are not a like-for-like price for 43 units whose mix has not been disclosed. They do show where new-unit pricing sits. The fund's $518,000 average sits with the resale market instead:

$518,000 is 2% above the City of Toronto's median one-bedroom ask, 4% below Mount Pleasant West's, and 24% below the City's median two-bedroom ask. Princeps figures here are asking prices, not sale prices.

New-condo sales remain weak. The Toronto region recorded 215 new condo purchases in August, 78% below the 10-year average for the month, according to figures reported by The Globe and Mail.

Line 5 one-bedrooms ask $2,150 in rent, below the $2,400 cited for the area

High Art has an agreement to rent units below market to members of the Service Employees International Union who work in health care. John Klein, the union's secretary-treasurer, told The Globe and Mail that the typical one-bedroom rent near Yonge and Eglinton is about $2,400, so members could rent at around $1,800. Princeps data puts the area lower. One-bedroom condos listed for rent in Mount Pleasant West from July to September 2026 asked a median $2,300, and $1,800 is 22% below that. Line 5's own one-bedrooms ask less again: a median $2,150 across about 50 units listed since May 2026.

Against the building's own median, $1,800 is a 16% discount. A 25% discount on $2,150 would be $1,613. High Art says affordable rents will be set at the lower of 25% below market rates or 30% of median gross household income across the region. Which "market rent" it measures against will decide how affordable the 550 units really are. CMHC's October 2025 average for one-bedroom condos in the surrounding zone (the former City of Toronto, York and East York) was $2,465, but that average includes sitting tenants and older, larger units.

The towers already operate as a rental building. Princeps has recorded more than 100 distinct Line 5 units listed for rent since May, at least four for every unit listed for sale. The fund's units will lease in direct competition with investor-owned units in the same towers.

Toronto one-bedroom condo rents in 2026 match CMHC's 2025 survey

The median asking rent for a one-bedroom condo listed in the City of Toronto from July to September 2026 was $2,350, against a CMHC average of $2,365 for one-bedroom condos in October 2025, a difference of under 1%:

The two measure different things. CMHC's Rental Market Survey averages rents that tenants actually pay, including sitting tenants. Princeps measures what landlords ask for units coming onto the market now, across 9,924 one-bedroom and 6,245 two-bedroom listings. Asking studio rents sit 7.5% below CMHC's 2025 average; two-bedroom asking rents sit 5.4% above it.

At $518,000, a Line 5 unit yields 5% to 6.5% before costs

What the fund paid on average, set against what Line 5 units ask in rent:

Condo fees use the median of Line 5 sale listings: $351 a month for a one-bedroom and $529 for a two-bedroom. The yields are before property tax, vacancy, management and financing. Renting a quarter of the portfolio at least 25% below market lowers its rental income by at least 6%.

2,200 units is twice Toronto's completed, unsold condo stock

CMHC counted 1,119 completed, unsold row and apartment units for the homeowner and condo markets in the Toronto CMA in August 2026, more than double the 515 a year earlier. Of those, 931 were condo units:

Read the level with care. The count covers only finished units, so it leaves out pre-construction and under-construction inventory, and CMHC counts a unit as sold once a binding purchase agreement is signed. CMHC also states that it is reviewing the methodology of its unsold-inventory series in Ontario and asks users to treat the data with caution.

Even so, the scale is clear. At 2,200 units, the fund's target is more than twice the completed, unsold condo stock CMHC currently records. Against the resale market, it is smaller: about 11,000 condo apartments were listed for sale in the Toronto CMA on October 1, 2026, according to Princeps data, and CMHC counted 214,083 condos already rented out in the Toronto CMA in 2025, 40.3% of all condo apartments.

What this means if you own, or want, a Toronto condo

For owners and developers: the first government-backed bulk buyer paid resale-level prices, well below CMHC's medians for new units.

For buyers and renters: one-bedroom condos in Mount Pleasant West ask a median $539,000 to buy and $2,300 a month to rent, and Line 5's one-bedrooms rent for less. Rents in the same building vary by size and floor, which matters more than the citywide average. The Princeps Analyst can pull the comparables, asking rents and price history for any building or neighbourhood.

Frequently asked questions

How much did High Art Capital pay for the Line 5 condos? $22.3 million for 43 unsold units, an average of $518,000 a unit, as reported by The Globe and Mail on September 22, 2026. Line 5 is at 117 to 127 Broadway Avenue, near Yonge and Eglinton.

Is $518,000 a unit a discount? Compared with resale, no: one-bedroom condos in the City of Toronto asked a median $509,900 from July to September 2026. Compared with CMHC's $945,000 median for completed, unsold new apartments in August 2026, yes, though that median covers units of every size.

How many unsold condos are there in Toronto? CMHC counted 1,119 completed, unsold row and apartment units in the Toronto CMA in August 2026, of which 931 were condos. That count excludes units still under construction, and CMHC says its Ontario series is under methodology review.

What is the rent for a one-bedroom condo near Yonge and Eglinton in 2026? In Mount Pleasant West, one-bedrooms listed from July to September 2026 asked a median $2,300 a month. At Line 5, the median is $2,150, across about 50 units listed since May 2026.

What is the average condo rent in Toronto in 2026? One-bedroom condos listed in the City of Toronto from July to September 2026 asked a median $2,350 a month, and two-bedrooms $3,100, according to Princeps data. CMHC's October 2025 averages were $2,365 and $2,942.

What counts as affordable in the High Art Capital fund? About 550 of the planned 2,200 units are to stay affordable in perpetuity, at the lower of 25% below market rent or 30% of median gross household income. At Line 5, 25% below the median one-bedroom asking rent of $2,150 is $1,613 a month.

What to watch next

CMHC's September 2026 absorption tables will show whether Toronto's completed, unsold count resumes rising after August's dip, and CMHC's review of its Ontario unsold-inventory methodology could revise the series. The fund's next block purchases will show whether $518,000 a unit holds outside midtown. The Bank of Canada decides rates on October 28, and CMHC's next Rental Market Survey, taken in October and published later this year, will test whether condo rents are still holding near 2025 levels. We will update these numbers as the market moves them.