How Much Can a Landlord Raise Rent in 2027? Caps by Province

A landlord in Ontario can raise your rent by at most 1.9% in 2027, and one in British Columbia by at most 2.2%. Other provinces set their own limits, from 2.1% in Prince Edward Island to 5% in Nova Scotia. Quebec doesn’t cap the increase but lets you refuse it, and in five provinces and territories there’s no limit on the amount at all.

Those limits cover the rent you already pay, and not every home gets one. So before you pay the number on your notice, check two things: that your unit is covered, and that the notice follows your province’s rules.

How much can your landlord raise the rent in 2027?

Six provinces cap increases for 2027: Ontario at 1.9%, Prince Edward Island at 2.1%, British Columbia at 2.2%, Manitoba and New Brunswick at 3%, and Nova Scotia at 5%. Yukon’s 2.6% runs until May 14, 2027. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut don’t limit the amount.

Almost everywhere, the rent can go up at most once every 12 months, and not in the first year of a tenancy. The table shows each limit and how much written notice your landlord has to give.

Manitoba has the biggest change. Its guideline goes from 1.8% in 2026 to 3% for 2027, the top of the range its formula allows (opens in a new tab). Prince Edward Island set its 2.1% on September 23, 2026. Yukon’s 2.6% runs on a different calendar, from May 15, 2026, to May 14, 2027. The territory says (opens in a new tab) this is the last year its rent index applies in its current form, and that it intends to phase the cap out.

Quebec lets you refuse the increase

Quebec doesn’t cap the increase. Instead, it lets you say no. The landlord has to send a written notice between three and six months before a 12-month lease ends, and you then have one month to answer. You can accept, tell them you’re moving out, or refuse and stay. If you don’t answer, the law treats you as having accepted.

If you refuse, your landlord has one month to ask the Tribunal administratif du logement (opens in a new tab) (TAL) to set the rent. If they don’t, your lease renews at the same rent. When the TAL does set it, it starts from a base percentage, the average of Quebec’s inflation over the last three years, and can add to it for higher taxes, insurance or major repairs. The base was 3.1% for notices given in 2026 (opens in a new tab). The 2027 figure comes out in January, just as landlords start sending notices for leases that end on June 30.

Where there’s no limit at all

In Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, a landlord can raise the rent by any amount. The law controls when, and with how much warning:

• Alberta: once a year, with three full months’ notice on a monthly tenancy, and never during a fixed-term lease.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: once a year, with six months’ notice, never in the first year and never during a fixed-term lease.
• Saskatchewan: on a month-to-month tenancy, 12 months’ notice and no increase in the first 18 months. Landlords who belong to one of two recognized associations can give six months’ notice and raise the rent every six months instead. On a fixed-term lease, the increase has to be written into the lease or given at least two months before it ends.
• Northwest Territories and Nunavut: once a year, with three months’ notice.

Which rentals aren’t covered by the limit?

Newer buildings in some provinces, and often anyone signing a new lease. Ontario’s guideline skips buildings first lived in after November 15, 2018. Manitoba’s skips units renting for $2,000 or more a month and buildings in their first 20 years. And Quebec’s right to refuse doesn’t cover buildings five years old or newer.

Ontario: buildings first lived in after November 15, 2018

If your building, or the addition you rent, was first occupied as a home after November 15, 2018, Ontario’s guideline doesn’t apply (opens in a new tab) and your landlord can raise the rent by any amount. Most basement apartments created since then are exempt too. The other rules still apply: at least 90 days’ written notice on the Landlord and Tenant Board’s form, and no more than one increase every 12 months.

If you’re not sure when your building was first occupied, the Landlord and Tenant Board can tell you whether your unit is exempt. In a dispute, it’s up to the landlord to prove it with permits or builder records.

Manitoba: rents of $2,000 or more, and newer buildings

For 2027, Manitoba’s guideline (opens in a new tab) doesn’t apply to units renting for $2,000 a month or more, up from $1,670 in 2026. Buildings first occupied after March 2005 are exempt for their first 20 years. Social housing, co-operatives and a few other types of rental are exempt too.

Quebec: buildings five years old or newer

In a Quebec building that’s five years old or newer, you can’t refuse an increase or have the TAL review it. You accept it or you move out. The exemption only counts if it’s written into section F of your lease, and for buildings finished since February 21, 2024, the lease also has to state the highest rent the landlord can charge during those five years.

A new tenant usually starts from a new rent

A limit mostly protects the tenant who stays. Ontario’s guideline doesn’t apply when a new tenant moves in (opens in a new tab): the landlord and the new tenant agree on the rent. Nova Scotia’s 5% cap doesn’t apply to new tenants signing a new lease (opens in a new tab). And CMHC’s mid-2026 rental market update (opens in a new tab) found that in markets with rent increase guidelines and low turnover, “landlords are still able to significantly increase rents once a unit becomes available.”

Three provinces keep some control between tenants. In Prince Edward Island, the limit is attached to the unit (opens in a new tab), not the tenant. In Manitoba, in buildings of four or more units, a new tenant’s rent can’t be more than the average (opens in a new tab) for comparable units in the complex. And in Quebec, the landlord has to write the lowest rent paid in the previous 12 months into section G of your lease. If you’re paying more, you can ask the TAL to set your rent (opens in a new tab) within 10 days of signing.

What does a 2027 increase cost in dollars?

On a $2,000 apartment, the 2027 limit works out to $38 more a month in Ontario, $44 in British Columbia and $100 in Nova Scotia. Over a year, Ontario’s 1.9% adds $456 to your rent and Nova Scotia’s 5% adds $1,200.

Each figure is the most the rent can go up per month. In Manitoba, a unit renting for $2,000 or more isn’t covered by the guideline in 2027, so there’s no limit to show.

Staying usually costs less than moving

Your current rent is probably below what the landlord would ask a new tenant. In CMHC’s October 2025 survey, new tenants were paying more than sitting tenants on average (opens in a new tab), even in cities where rents on new leases had started to fall. Moving costs money too: movers, overlapping rent, and a new deposit in most provinces. Our guide to rental deposit rules has the amount for yours.

With asking rents falling, you can negotiate

The average asking rent in Canada was $2,035 in August 2026, down 4.8% from a year earlier (opens in a new tab) and the 23rd month in a row that asking rents were lower than a year earlier, according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation. CMHC’s June update says landlords are competing for tenants with incentives that reach several months of free rent, and that renters now have “more choice and some negotiating room.”

The limit is the most your landlord can charge, not an amount they’re owed. If similar units in your building are listed for about the same as your new rent, or less, point that out to your landlord before the increase starts, because if you leave, they’d likely have to rent your unit at that price. In Calgary, where there’s no limit, CMHC found landlords held two-bedroom rents steady in 2025 to keep their tenants. And in British Columbia, a landlord who raises the rent by less than the limit can’t make up the difference (opens in a new tab) in a later year.

Can your landlord raise the rent by more than the limit?

Only with approval, and not everywhere. In Ontario, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, a landlord can apply for up to 3% on top of the regular limit for costs like major repairs. Yukon allows up to 3% above its index for extraordinary expenses, New Brunswick as much as 9% for renovations, and Manitoba an above-guideline increase when the guideline won’t cover a landlord’s costs. Nova Scotia doesn’t allow exceptions to its 5% cap.

In Ontario, the Landlord and Tenant Board can approve an above-guideline increase for capital repairs or security costs. The part for those costs can’t be more than 3% above the guideline in a year, and anything beyond that is spread across the next two years. An unusually large jump in municipal taxes is a third reason a landlord can apply, and that part has no 3% limit.

In British Columbia, an additional rent increase (opens in a new tab) for major repairs or improvements is capped at 3% on top of the regular limit, and it can only come with the yearly increase. A landlord can also ask you to agree in writing to a bigger increase. You don’t have to.

In Quebec, where the TAL sets the rent after a refusal, it can add up to 5% of what the landlord spent on major repairs or renovations.

What if your rent increase breaks the rules?

Don’t just pay it. In Ontario an increase without proper notice is void, in British Columbia you don’t have to pay anything above the limit, and in Quebec a landlord who misses the notice window can’t raise the rent that year. The deadlines to push back are short, though.

Ontario

An increase is void if the landlord didn’t give at least 90 days’ written notice (opens in a new tab) on the Board’s form, and they have to start the notice over. If you think the amount is wrong, you can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board within 12 months of first paying it. After a year, the law treats the increase as legal, so don’t wait.

British Columbia

You don’t have to pay an increase above the legal limit (opens in a new tab), and if you already have, you can deduct the overpayment from your next rent. If the notice was too short, you keep paying your current rent until three full months have passed. Increases have to come on the Residential Tenancy Branch’s form, RTB-7.

Quebec

Reply in writing within a month of getting the notice. If you refuse and your landlord doesn’t apply to the TAL within a month of your reply, the lease renews at the same rent (opens in a new tab). And if the notice arrived late, Éducaloi says (opens in a new tab) the landlord can’t raise the rent that year.

Everywhere else

In Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, you can apply to the province’s residential tenancy office to get back an increase above the cap. In the Northwest Territories, a rental officer can order a landlord to return all or part of an improper increase. In Saskatchewan, a notice that doesn’t follow the rules takes effect on the first date that does.

Save the difference before the increase starts

A rent increase never starts the day you hear about it. Your landlord has to warn you at least 90 days ahead in Ontario, three months in most provinces and territories, and up to a year in Saskatchewan. If you move the amount of the increase into savings each month from the day the notice arrives, you’ll find out whether the new rent fits before you have to pay it, and you’ll have a small cushion if it doesn’t. On a $2,000 rent in Ontario, three months of that practice is $114.

Lodavo can make those months a little more rewarding. It’s a free app that connects to the savings or chequing account you already use, and every $25 you have saved earns a ticket for its weekly cash draw, where the jackpot is $10,000. Nothing leaves your account to take part, so the cushion is there whenever you need it.

Before you pay the new amount

Find your province in the first table and check the percentage, how much notice you got, and whether the notice came on the official form if your province has one (Ontario, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon do). If anything’s off, the link beside your province goes to the rules your landlord has to follow, and the section on increases that break the rules tells you what to do.

Lodavo is free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) and the Google Play Store (opens in a new tab), and your balance starts earning tickets for the next weekly draw.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Rent rules change every year, so check your province’s own page before you act on a number here.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.