What $2,200 Gets You in Burlington, Hamilton and Brantford (July 2026 Rent Check)
July 2026 rent check — asking rents from public listing data, not an appraisal. Sources at the bottom.
If your budget is around $2,200 a month, the same dollar rents you three quite different homes depending on which side of the Golden Horseshoe you look. Here’s what the public listing data says right now.
Burlington: a large one-bedroom, or a sharp two-bedroom deal
Burlington’s median asking rent sits at about $2,005 for a one-bedroom and $2,395 for a two-bedroom (Zumper, July 2026). At $2,200 you’re comfortably above the one-bedroom median — enough to be choosy about parking, in-suite laundry and location — but a two-bedroom at that price means finding a listing priced below the median. They exist: Burlington asking rents have slipped roughly 4% year over year, and units priced at last year’s numbers are the ones sitting vacant.
Hamilton: a solid two-bedroom, with room to spare
Hamilton’s median two-bedroom asks about $2,000 (Zumper, June 2026), with one-bedrooms around $1,599. At $2,200 you’re shopping above the two-bedroom median — which in practice means a better building, a better street, or parking included. Hamilton asking rents are down about 5% year over year overall.
Brantford: three-bedroom territory
Brantford’s median two-bedroom asks about $2,104 and three-bedrooms about $2,145 (Zumper, May 2026) — remarkably close together. At $2,200, a family-sized three-bedroom is realistically in reach. One caveat we’d be dishonest not to mention: Brantford’s public listing sample is small (under 100 active listings at the time of writing), so medians move around more than in bigger markets.
What this means if you’re a landlord
Two of these three markets are softer than they were a year ago. If your unit has been sitting for more than three weeks, the market has probably moved underneath your asking price — tenants at any given budget can now see more, and better, options than last year. That’s exactly the conversation our monthly landlord update covers, with comparables for your specific area.
What this means if you’re renting
A softening market is leverage. If you’re flexible on city, the same budget buys a bedroom more in Hamilton or Brantford than in Burlington. We place tenants across all three markets — without fees.
How we handle numbers
These are asking rents from public listing aggregates — what landlords listed at, not necessarily what units leased at. We don’t publish estimates of what any specific unit “is worth”; we report what comparables asked, and where the sample is thin, we say so. For a comparables sheet on a specific unit, ask us — it’s free.
Sources
- Zumper — Burlington, ON rent research (July 2026)
- Zumper — Hamilton, ON rent research (June 2026)
- Zumper — Brantford, ON rent research (May 2026)
- Rentals.ca National Rent Report