Islington City Centre One Bedroom Condos: The First Half of 2026

The towers around Islington station are one of the best value plays in Etobicoke, and the first half of 2026 backed that up. We pulled every one bedroom condo with parking that sold or leased through MLS in Islington City Centre between January 1 and June 30, 2026. That came to 85 sales and 456 leases, concentrated in the buildings along Mabelle, Michael Power, Cordova, Thomas Riley, and Central Park Roadway. Here is what the numbers say.

Sales: 85 sold. Average price $465,610 (median $460,000). Average $737 per square foot ($754 in Q1, $724 in Q2). Median 27 days on market, average 33.

Leases: 456 leased. Average rent $2,229 a month (median $2,200). Average $3.75 per square foot. Median 18 days on market, average 25.

The short version

Prices per square foot softened, sales sped up, and the rental machine kept running. The average price per square foot slipped from $754 in the first quarter to $724 in the second, a drop of about 4 percent. Interestingly, the average sold price actually ticked up over the same stretch, from $462,697 to $467,648, which tells you buyers gravitated to larger suites in the spring. Rents nudged up from $2,217 a month in Q1 to $2,241 in Q2.

The volume gap here is even wider than what we found down in Mimico. For every one bedroom that sold in Islington City Centre this half, more than five leased. This is a renter's neighbourhood by the numbers, and for anyone thinking about holding a unit as an investment, that depth of tenant demand is the headline.

What sold, and for how much

The 85 sales ranged from $370,000 for a suite on Gibbs Road up to $605,000 at 1 Michael Power Place. The middle of this market is tight: more than 60 percent of all sales closed between $400,000 and $500,000. The typical unit was around 600 to 650 square feet with one parking spot, the average maintenance fee was $601 a month, and the average property tax bill was $2,215 a year.

Buyers held the upper hand on price. Of the 85 sales, 74 closed below asking, 3 right at it, and only 8 above. The average sale went for 97 percent of list, the same discipline we are seeing across the Etobicoke condo market: priced right, a unit moves; priced hopefully, it sits.

One caution reading the line above: with 8 to 22 sales a month, the monthly numbers bounce around more than they would in a bigger market. The trend is still clear enough. Price per square foot peaked in February at $768, held near there in March, then stepped down through the spring to $718 in June. If you were waiting for a friendlier entry point around the Islington subway, the back half of spring was it.

The rental side kept humming

While buyers negotiated, renters signed. The 456 leases ranged from $1,900 on Samuel Wood Way to $2,950 on Aberfoyle Crescent. The average landed at $2,229 a month, and pricing was remarkably disciplined: 281 of the 456 leases went for exactly asking price, and another 30 went over.

Rents climbed slowly but steadily all half, from $2,199 in January to about $2,249 by June. Nothing dramatic, just a market absorbing a steady stream of units without blinking. April was the single busiest month, with 96 leases signed.

Speed: the rental market got faster as the year went on

The median lease took 18 days, and the median sale took 27. Both sides of this market accelerated through the spring. January was slow for everyone, with leases averaging 34 days and sales 46. By June, the average lease was done in 19 days and 43 percent of all leases this half were signed inside two weeks.

The sales line is jumpier because the monthly counts are small, and March's spike to 50 days came from a handful of stale listings finally finding their number. The direction of travel since then is what matters: Q1 sales averaged 38 days on market, Q2 averaged 30.

How much traded each month

The busiest addresses tell you where the action is: 60 Central Park Roadway led everything with 55 transactions, followed by 25 Cordova, 9 Mabelle, 50 Thomas Riley, and 1007 The Queensway. The newer towers near the subway are carrying most of the rental volume.

Curious how other condo pockets compare? Start with these.

• Mimico One Bedroom Condos: What Happened in the First Half of 2026
• Top 5 Burger Joints in Etobicoke You Have to Try
• What Does a One Bedroom Condo Cost in Etobicoke? A Mid 2026 Reality Check

So what does it all mean?

If you are buying, Islington City Centre is the value story in Etobicoke right now. At $737 per square foot against roughly $808 in Humber Bay Shores, you are buying the same commute, arguably a better one with two subway lines' worth of access at Islington and Kipling, for about 9 percent less per foot. Prices softened through the spring and most sellers accepted offers below asking.

If you are selling, the same rule we keep repeating: pricing is everything. Only 8 of 85 sales went over asking, and the March DOM spike shows exactly what happens to listings that test the market. Price to the last 90 days of comparable sales and the spring data says you will be done in under a month.

If you are an investor, lean in. The average one bedroom with parking sold for about $466,000 and leased for $2,229 a month. That is roughly $26,700 a year in gross rent, a gross yield of about 5.7 percent before fees and taxes, better than what the same math gives you on the waterfront. And with five and a half leases signed for every sale, tenant demand is not the thing keeping you up at night.

Renting vs buying: we ran the math

Same exercise we ran for Mimico, and here the answer comes back even more decisively. Say you buy the average one bedroom with parking at $465,610 with 10 percent down, a 4 percent five year fixed rate, and a 25 year amortization. Your down payment is $46,561. Under 20 percent down means mortgage insurance, $12,991 rolled into the loan, so you start with a $432,040 mortgage and a payment of $2,273 a month.

Add the average maintenance fee of $601 and property taxes of about $185 a month and owning runs you roughly $3,058 a month, about $829 more than the average rent of $2,229. But about $845 of that first mortgage payment goes straight to paying down your own loan, which means the true monthly cost gap between owning and renting is nearly zero from day one.

The fair comparison is rent against the money an owner never gets back: interest, maintenance, and property taxes. Over the full five year term that comes to $127,560. The renter pays $133,740 over the same five years, holding rent flat the whole way. So at 4 percent with just 10 percent down, owning is already about $6,180 cheaper than renting, and the owner has also paid the mortgage down by $55,932. In Mimico this comparison was a coin flip. Here it is not.

With 20 percent down it gets better still. The $93,122 down payment skips mortgage insurance, the mortgage starts at $372,488, and the payment drops to $1,959 a month, which is $270 less than the average rent. The owner's five year unrecoverable costs come to $116,474 against the renter's $133,740, making owning about $17,266 cheaper over the term, with $48,223 paid off the mortgage on top.

We stress tested the rate here too. At 3.5 percent, owning wins by about $16,500 with 10 percent down and $26,100 with 20. At 4.5 percent, the 10 percent down buyer finally slips behind renting by about $4,100 over five years, while the 20 percent buyer still comes out roughly $8,400 ahead. In Islington City Centre, the buyer has to work fairly hard to lose this comparison.

The usual honest caveats. Getting in takes real cash: $46,561 down at 10 percent or $93,122 at 20, plus land transfer tax of about $11,574 in Toronto (first time buyers get up to $8,475 of that back) and legal fees. Rates change at renewal. Condo fees rise. Prices can fall as well as climb, and this report shows price per square foot doing exactly that. And we are realtors, not financial advisors or mortgage brokers, so treat this as a starting point for a conversation, not a plan. But at these prices and these rents, the math around Islington station leans toward owning more clearly than almost anywhere else we track.

The numbers, month by month

Thinking about your own unit? We work these buildings all the time, from Mabelle to Michael Power to the newer towers on Thomas Riley. If you want to know what your one bedroom would sell or lease for in today's market, reach out and we will run the numbers on your exact building, no pressure and no obligation. Get in touch, explore our neighbourhood guides, or join the newsletter.

Dave Dubbin & Associates
Etobicoke Real Estate Experts
Real Estate Broker for Etobicoke and Toronto

About the data. Source: Toronto Regional Real Estate Board MLS, one bedroom condo apartments (including one plus den) with at least one parking space in the Islington City Centre West area of Etobicoke, firm sales and leases closed January 1 to June 30, 2026. Price per square foot is calculated on the midpoint of each listing's reported square footage range. Averages are simple averages across all transactions. The renting vs buying comparison assumes the average sold price of $465,610, either 10 percent down with CMHC insurance of 3.1 percent added to the mortgage or 20 percent down with no insurance, a 4 percent fixed rate compounded semi annually over a five year term with a 25 year amortization, the average maintenance fee of $601 and average property taxes of $2,215 from the sold listings, and rent held flat at the average of $2,229. The rate comparison repeats the same math at 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent, holding everything else constant. It excludes utilities, insurance, closing costs, rate changes at renewal, and any change in property value, and it is general information, not financial advice. Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed, and past performance is not a promise of future results. Not intended to solicit properties currently under contract.