Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford during a mayoral debate in Scarborough on October 7, 2026
Photo: CityNews

Eighteen days from the vote, Toronto's mayoral race just became a two-person fight about housing — and both candidates are arguing over the same pile of bricks.

Chris Alexander bowed out Tuesday, saying polls showed him with no viable path. He declined to endorse either candidate, and because he missed the city's deadline, his name will still sit on the ballot with advance voting underway. By Tuesday night it was a head-to-head: Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford traded blows at a United Way debate at Toronto Metropolitan University, then again Wednesday at a Scarborough debate hosted by CityNews. Election day is October 26. (Particle News, CityNews, CityNews)

Bradford came out swinging on a pledge Chow made in the last election:

"You said in the last election that we were going to build 65,000 purpose-built rental homes by 2030. The results are only 1,500 of them have been built — 2 per cent of your target. If we continue at that pace, it'll take another 115 years."

— Brad Bradford, Toronto mayoral candidate, at the United Way debate (via CityNews)

It lands because it hits the one thing every Torontonian feels: the rental shortage. Chow didn't flinch, firing back that Bradford himself voted to double development charges while chairing the committee that set them.

"You were head of the committee. You created the problems you're now campaigning to fix! Under your watch building homes got a lot more expensive."

— Olivia Chow, Toronto mayoral candidate, at the United Way debate (via CityNews)

Chow then took the fight to Scarborough on Wednesday, standing at the 26 Gilder Drive construction site — a 341-unit rental development with 80 affordable homes — to argue her housing plan is already putting people to work. Her campaign says 40 affordable projects that have started construction since 2023 have generated about 37,000 jobs, with 51 projects now under construction representing more than 15,000 rental homes. The Gilder Drive project received $11.4 million in city incentives plus nearly $150 million in federal funding and financing through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (CP24)

"Your children can grow up, leave home, and still afford to stay close."

— Olivia Chow, Toronto mayoral candidate (via CP24)

Aimed at parents watching their adult kids get priced out — but the rental market is already delivering relief on its own. The Rentals.ca and Urbanation rent report, published Wednesday, shows Toronto apartment and condo asking rents fell to $2,554 in September — down 1.4 per cent from a year earlier, the 32nd consecutive month of annual declines, and the lowest September average since 2021. Nationally, asking rent was $2,034, down 4.2 per cent for the 24th straight month, 9.2 per cent below the May 2024 peak. (Rentals.ca / Urbanation)

But the averages hide a split: studio condo rents — the small investor-owned units that flooded the market — fell 9.6 per cent to $1,544, while three-bedroom rents rose 1.8 per cent to $3,586, the only large market where family-size rents rose. The glut is in the shoeboxes; families are still competing. The report's authors say the bottom may be forming: rents have risen over the past six months, construction inventory has peaked, revised population data shows growth, and cheaper rents are "releasing pent-up demand from delayed household formation." With weekly earnings up 19.4 per cent over five years, they conclude rental affordability is genuinely improving.

What neither candidate will say: whoever wins on October 26 inherits a rental market already healing without them. The policy fight — development charges, tax freezes, incentive programs — matters for what gets built after 2028, but today's rents are moving on supply and demographics, not council votes. For renters weighing rent versus buy, the math tilts toward patience: soft rents, soft resale prices, and a Bank of Canada decision on October 28. The warning sign is the three-bedroom divergence — relief is real, but thinnest where growing families need it most, and that is the gap the next mayor will own.

That's the market as it stands — we'll be back tomorrow evening with the next round of headlines.

Compiled by the HomesFound team from the reporting linked above.