GTAAonline Magazine August 2023

Golf raised $85,000 for Charity

Justice Delayed, Fairness Denied

New Mayor shuffles committees

PRESIDENT’S Message

All eyes are on housing supply and affordability. Academic studies show that housing becomes more affordable when it is plentiful. There is less homelessness in jurisdictions with ample housing availability. Anecdotally, the broad view is addiction is a major cause of homelessness. While addiction leads to living vulnerably, there are many places with higher levels of drug addiction, but low rates of homelessness even among addicts. In these places there is plentiful housing.

In order to fix the housing problem everyone needs to begin with a clean slate and erase preconceived notions from what they have heard in the past. The only way to improve the situation is to approach it using fact-based information and real data. Inuendo, speculation and conjecture are how we got here. Our way out of this mess is via a different route.

A patchwork of quick fixes trumpeting from a soapbox do little (perhaps nothing) aside from generating media attention. Our history is littered with announcements and policies that may have sounded good as headlines, but have over time proven to be ineffective and many generated consequences which have in the long run resulted in worse outcomes. Categorizing them as “unintended” is a poor excuse when it is predicted in advance. “Oops, we didn’t see that coming” is not good enough.

We are where we are. We need leaders who can map a goal-oriented strategy, and make it happen. There are no sound bite solutions, and a series of social media hashtags is direly insufficient.

The creation of an abundance of new purpose-built rental housing is the largest part of the solution. Housing options need to be available to allow for upward mobility. This opens older, less amenity rich housing at lower prices for young people, new families, immigrants, downsizing seniors, and anyone else who wants or needs it. Without a new place to move into, everyone stays where they are … clogging our housing system.

The financial numbers don’t work. If they did, there would have been consistent and significant new development to meet the huge demand. With current interest rates and increases is costs all around, the challenge is larger now than a few years ago. Rental projects have stalled.

All governments need to work together. First, they must put aside their ideological biases and establish targets and provide incentives and policy changes that are truly goal-oriented. We need action, not more studies or reports.

Trusted Advisors

Philip Sarvinis | Bill Gladu | Jeremy Horst | Michael Pond | Duncan Rowe

Jack Albert | Beau Gaudreau | James Cooper | Michael Park | Tim Van Zwol

Publisher Nishant Rai

Account Executive Justin Kreslin

Editorial Daryl Chong

Creative Director / Designer Scott Clark

Office Manager Geeta Lokhram

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R E C O V E R Y

M A X I M I Z E D D E B T

S e r v i c e s W E p r o v i d e :

T r a n s p a r e n t C o l l e c t i o n s

S t a f f T r a i n i n g S e r v i c e s

A R M a n a g e m e n t

A R C o n s u l t i n g

C a l l S e r v i c e s

Credit Bureau reporting

Live Login to your accounts

In-house and former tenant collections

Cyber insured

Grace

benjamin@harringtonhousing.com www.harringtonhousing.com/

Peter

James

Tony

Klaudian

Shniar

Ken

New Mayor

Olivia Chow was elected as Toronto’s 66th Mayor via a by-election on June 26, 2023. She bested the second-place candidate (Ana Bailão) by 34,000 votes. The rest of the field – the other 100 registered candidates – barely made an impact and were well off the pace.

Born in Hong Kong in 1957, Mayor Olivia Chow immigrated to Toronto with her parents at the age of 13, and lived with her family in the St. James Town neighbourhood. She graduated from OCAD University and pursued a varied career as a sculptor, college professor, ESL teacher and a counsellor for new immigrants. She found her passion for community organizing as a young woman rallying support for, and later working with, the Vietnamese Boat People who at the time were seeking refuge from their war-torn country in search of a better life in Canada.

Pursuing her newfound passion for public service, Olivia was first elected as a TDSB trustee in 1985, where she served for six years. In 1991, Olivia became the first Asian-born woman elected as a Metro Toronto Councillor, where she created lasting programs that continue to help hundreds of thousands of families in Toronto each year. These include programs like free dental care for children in poverty and the school breakfast and lunch program that helps kids focus on their teachers, not their hunger. She was re-elected to city council five times, serving with distinction for 14 years. While at City Hall, she served as Chair of the Community Services

Committee and Vice Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as well as served on the budget committee for a decade.

In 2006, Olivia was elected as the Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina. Her Early Learning and Child Care bill laid the legislative foundation for a universal, high quality, affordable and nonprofit national childcare program. Her bill on a National Public Transit Strategy was widely celebrated by mayors and municipalities from coast to coast.

In 2015, Mayor Olivia Chow joined Toronto Metropolitan University as a Distinguished Visiting Professor where her work focused on community engagement and leadership development. As a founder of the Institute for Change Leaders, Olivia and her team have taught thousands the valuable skills of community and political organizing.

The GTAA wishes Mayor Chow well and looks forward to working with her on a variety of important issues.

Photo credit: the City of Toronto

Committee Shuffle

On August 10, 2023 – just over a month after being sworn in on July 12, 2023 – Mayor Chow shuffled the composition and Chairs of Toronto’s Committees, Boards and Agencies. The new membership of the City’s main committees became official that day and will be in full function when meetings resume in September. The following lists the new makeup of the City’s main committees and those related to rental housing and development.

Executive Committee

Olivia Chow, Chair

Ausma Malik, Vice-Chair

Amber Morley

Mike Colle

Jennifer McKelvie, Chair, Infrastructure and Environment Committee

Alejandra Bravo, Chair, Economic and Community Development Committee

Paul Ainslie, Chair, General Government Committee

Gord Perks, Chair, Planning and Housing Committee

Shelley Carroll, Chair, Budget Committee

Paula Fletcher (at-large)

Josh Matlow (at-large)

Planning & Housing Committee

Gord Perks, Chair

Brad Bradford, Vice-Chair

Jamaal Myers

Frances Nunziata

Josh Matlow

Michael Thompson

Economic & Community Development Committee

Alejandra Bravo, Chair

Shelly Carroll, Vice-Chair

Paula Fletcher

Chris Moise

Jaye Robinson

Ausma Malik

General Government Committee

Paul Ainslie, Chair

Stephen Holyday, Vice-Chair.

Jon Burnside

Lily Cheng

Vincent Crisanti

Nick Mantas

Infrastructure & Environment Committee

Jennifer McKelvie, Chair

Mike Colle, Vice-Chair

James Pasternak

Anthony Perruzza

Dianne Saxe

Amber Morley

Budget Committee

Shelley Carroll, Chair

Gord Perks, Vice-Chair

Lily Cheng

Chris Moise

Amber Morley

Jennifer McKelvie

Audit Committee

Stephen Holyday, Chair

Jamaal Myers, Vice-Chair

Paula Fletcher

Vincent Crisanti

Frances Nunziata

Board of Health

Alejandra Bravo

Chris Moise

Amber Morley

Michael Thompson

Gord Perks

Ausma Malik

CreateTO Board of Directors

Brad Bradford

Paula Fletcher (Mayor’s designate)

Housing Rights Advisory Committee

Gord Perks

Heritage Toronto Board of Directors

Gord Perks

Paula Fletcher (Mayor’s designate)

Toronto Preservation Board

Gord Perks

Administrative Justice Delayed,

This was an investigation into whether the Ministry of the Attorney General, Tribunals Ontario and the Landlord & Tenant Board (LTB) were taking adequate steps to address delays and case backlogs at the LTB showed major failings.

Beginning in 2018 the Ombudsman’s office noticed a significant increase in complaints about the LTB, specifically about delay. In fiscal year 2018-2019, 80 of the 200 complaints received by the Ombudsman about the LTB were about delays. In the first three quarters of fiscal year 2019-2020, the Ombudsman received 110 complaints about delays at the LTB, 43 in December 2019 alone. The complaints came from landlords and tenants, as well as other interested parties. Many cited delays in having hearings

scheduled and orders issued. Some complained of significant consequences of having to wait several months or years.

Tribunals Ontario also saw a spike in complaints about LTB delays, and its 2018-2019 annual report contained data showing that the LTB had not consistently met its own service standards since 2017. At the time, Tribunals Ontario attributed delays primarily to a shortage of adjudicators.

In May 2023, Paul Dube, Ombudsman of Ontario published a scathing report titled “Administrative Justice Delayed, Fairness Denied”.

Delayed, Fairness Denied

In the wake of the surge in complaints, and in light of the real human impact resulting from Board delays, the Ombudsman determined that an investigation was warranted.

On January 9, 2020, the Ombudsman notified Tribunals Ontario, the LTB, and the Ministry of the Attorney General of the intent to investigate whether they were taking adequate steps to address delays and case backlogs at the LTB. The investigation was assigned to a Special Ombudsman Response Team (SORT).

During SORT’s investigation, 84% of all complaints received about the Board were from landlords, and about 12% were from tenants. The numbers were unsurprising, given that most of the applications

affected by the Board’s delays were filed by landlords.

Some tenant stakeholder groups expressed concern to us that the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and delays experienced at the Board benefited the interests of landlords, particularly large corporate leasing companies, to the detriment of tenants. However, a significant percentage of the landlords who reached out to the Ombudsman were individuals who owned only one rental property or leased space in their homes. They described great personal and financial hardships resulting from LTB delays.

The following is a summary containing excerpts from the Ombudsman’s report.

The LTB is one of the busiest tribunals in Ontario’s administrative justice system, receiving some 80,000

applications a year and directly impacting the daily lives of numerous residential landlords and tenants across the province. Tribunals such as the LTB were established to provide efficient and less formal dispute resolution services as an alternative to the courts. However, by the fall of 2019, the LTB had spiraled into a moribund state as it grappled with an increasing backlog of applications awaiting resolution.

Confronted with a rising volume of complaints about delays in scheduling hearings and issuing orders at the Board, Ombudsman Ontario commenced an investigation into whether the LTB, along with the Ministry of the Attorney General, which is responsible for its administration, and Tribunals Ontario, to which the LTB reports, were taking adequate steps to address delays and case backlogs.

During their investigation they heard from thousands of individuals who were detrimentally affected by the prolonged delays at the LTB. Some of their stories were particularly compelling, many were featured in their report, and several are summarized in the next article. There were tenants stuck waiting while they endured harassment, unsafe living conditions, and improper attempts to force them from their homes. And there were small landlords, including those renting out space within their own homes, who were trying to cope with tenants’ abuse, criminal conduct, and facing financial ruin and serious health harms.

Initially, officials from the Ministry, the LTB and Tribunals Ontario attributed delays to the recent election and a resulting reduction in appointments of adjudicators to conduct hearings. However, even after the appointment numbers had stabilized, the LTB continued to struggle as other sources of delay materialized. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 was undoubtedly a factor. By that stage, the LTB already had a backlog of more than 20,000 applications. Measures introduced to address the consequences of the pandemic, including the closure of the LTB’s physical offices, the move to telephone and later video hearings, and a moratorium on evictions, all impeded its efforts to remedy the situation.

Their investigation revealed that the LTB’s outdated technology also limited its ability to pivot effectively when the pandemic hit, further compounding delays. In 2021, when the LTB began to transition to a new system promising greater efficiencies, it first had to contend with scores of technical glitches.

Since the investigation began, the LTB has adopted a series of shifting strategies to manage its backlog of applications awaiting hearings. While there has been

some slight fluctuation in the volume, the queue has not been substantially reduced, and now stands at more than 38,000 applications. Where once it took the LTB a matter of days to schedule hearings, it now takes an average of seven to eight months. As of February 2023, landlord applications were generally being scheduled for hearing within six to nine months of receipt, and tenant applications could take up to two years to be scheduled.

Administrative tribunals make decisions about matters that have a serious impact on people’s lives, and the LTB is no exception, providing an extremely important service to the public. It has exclusive jurisdiction to resolve applications under the R TAand the public is entitled to expect that it will provide services in a timely and efficient manner.

In recent years the LTB has had to manage some challenges arising from circumstances beyond its control, but the investigation identified a host of inefficiencies that have also contributed to delays. There are numerous areas where LTB practices could be improved, including member recruitment and appointments, application screening, hearing scheduling and case triaging, managing adjournments, identification and processing of urgent cases, tracking of the expiration of member terms, order issuance, monitoring of outstanding orders and mediations, and more. The Ombudsman has concluded that the “conduct of the Landlord and Tenant Board, and Tribunals Ontario is unreasonable” under s. 21(1)(b) of the Ombudsman Act. He also found that the Ministry of the “Attorney General’s conduct relating to the appointment process for the LTB is unreasonable” under the Ombudsman Act.

The report made 61 recommendations to improve the functioning of the LTB for those who rely on its services. Several of the recommendations were directed at the Government of Ontario. Three focus on legislative change: one to eliminate potential reduction of adjudicative capacity connected with elections; another to provide the LTB with greater authority to address delays in the issuance of orders by individual members; and one to extend the time provided to members whose terms are expiring so they can complete matters they have already heard. It was also recommended that the government support efforts towards the LTB maintaining an adequate complement of adjudicators and implementing a strategy to reduce the backlog as soon as possible.

Tribunals Ontario accepted all the recommendations and committed to actively working to address the issues that were identified. The Ministry of the

Attorney General indicated that it takes the report and recommendations very seriously, and that work is well underway at Tribunals Ontario and the Ministry to address many of the issues identified in the report. It agreed with all the recommendations. Some positive steps have already been taken, including the Government of Ontario’s recent announcement that it is investing $6.5 million to appoint an additional 40 adjudicators and hire five staff to improve service and reduce the number of active applications and decision timeframes. The sooner this initiative moves forward, the sooner the LTB will be in a position to improve its service levels. The positive responses by Tribunals Ontario and the Ministry are encouraging.

As the evidence gathered in this investigation clearly demonstrates, the current state of the Board –reflected in the experience of thousands of Ontarians who came forward – is one where administrative justice delayed is fairness denied. The timely and efficient service to which the public is entitled from the LTB has not been a reality for many years. Ombudsman Ontario will closely monitor the efforts of the Landlord and Tenant Board, Tribunals Ontario and the Ministry to address the issues they uncovered.

What’s next?

Despite the Board’s efforts, the scheduling situation has not improved. As of March 2023, landlord applications were generally being scheduled for hearing within six to nine months of receipt, while it was taking up to two years for a tenant application to be scheduled. Tribunals Ontario advised that it intends to update its service standards at the end of April 2023 to indicate that some applications will be scheduled within 50 to 55 calendar days. Even once a hearing is held, there is no guarantee that the matter

will then be resolved expeditiously. Additional delays are often incurred at the order issuance stage.

While most of the delayed applications awaiting scheduling were filed by landlords, it was discovered that in January 2023, the backlog of some 38,000 applications included thousands from tenants. Of the 9,323 unresolved tenant applications, two date back to 2017, 13 to 2018, and 78 to 2019.

Path Forward

The Ombudsman made 61 recommendations. Many related to recruiting, hiring and training adjudicators. More frequent hearings, improved forms, triaging applications with priority setting, and a variety of logistic changes which most successful businesses utilize were also recommended by the Ombudsman.

The final main recommendations were that the Government of Ontario, the Ministry of the Attorney General, Tribunals Ontario and the LTB should work together to develop and implement a strategy for reducing the backlog as soon as possible. And that each should report back to the Ombudsman in six months’ time on progress in implementing the recommendations, and at six-month intervals thereafter until such time as the Ombudsman is satisfied that adequate steps have been taken to address them.

The lengthy report stated mostly obvious issues, followed by obvious recommendations. Nonetheless, it placed a bright light on long-standing problems and hopefully this will compel them to collectively fill the enormous pit that was dug over the past few years.

The best part of the report was its apt title.

National Apartment Group - Ontario

Ontario’s multi-residential sector remains one of the most resilient segments of commercial real estate capital markets. Notwithstanding broader market volatility, investor sentiment for multifamily assets remains strong. Through Q3 2023, values have weathered the impact of higher borrowing costs and are well-positioned to counteract higher interest rates through recurring income growth. Please see below for a summary of recent deals and active listings as of Q3 2023.

For additional info on cap rates, valuations, and market trends in the current investment landscape, please reach out to a member of our team.

For more information, please contact:

David Montressor * Vice Chairman

(416) 815-2332

david.montressor@cbre.com

Tom Schuster * Associate Director (416) 847-3257

tom.schuster@cbre.com

Closed July 2023

SOLD FOR $10,000,000

Closed

Pain and Anguish

Here are a few of the horror stories heard by the Ombudsman:

• A 74-year-old landlord, a pensioner, who had applied in December 2019 to end a woman’s tenancy because of serious safety concerns. According to his representative, the tenant had assaulted the landlord – once threatening him with a knife, and on other occasions throwing stool and urine at him – and another resident. She had also intentionally flooded the rental unit with excrement and toilet water, altered the electrical panel and added an extra stove without authorization. The tenant was also allegedly operating a “grow op” and selling drugs from the unit. Despite the egregious situation, the LTB did not hear the case for a full year, and the order requiring the tenant to vacate was not issued until January 2021.

• A man who rented out his basement applied in December 2019 to end the tenancy for personal use – so he could move his son, who is on the autism spectrum, into the unit and care for him. Scheduling of the hearing was initially delayed because the LTB could not locate an interpreter for the French-speaking tenant. Then it was postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic. The tenant subsequently filed an application in May 2020. A lack of French language services contributed to the delay in scheduling, and when the applications eventually came up for hearing in November

2020, they were adjourned. The hearing finally took place in February 2021, more than two years after the landlord first applied

• A man whose tenant had made only two payments since August 2019. On December 23, 2019, he applied to terminate the tenancy for non-payment. He obtained an eviction order on February 13, 2020, but the tenant requested a review and the LTB granted this request. A review hearing scheduled for May 2020 was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. When hearings relating to evictions commenced again in August 2020, the file went missing and the matter was not scheduled for hearing until April 12, 2021. More than two years after the landlord originally filed the application, the tenant’s rental arrears had surpassed $36,000. An eviction order was finally issued in March 2022.

• In September 2020, a woman told was concerned about her elderly parents, aged 78 and 90, who depended on income from a rental unit to pay for a personal support worker. The 78-year-old wife, who had her own significant health problems, was the primary caregiver for her 90-year-old husband. Their tenant was persistently behind in paying rent and was so abusive they had had to call police. The woman said an application had been filed with the LTB in March 2020, but her mother was becoming depressed and suicidal as the delay in having the matter resolved dragged on for months.

• One man contact the Ombudsman in 2022 from a homeless shelter. He had purchased a home that had a tenant in residence in 2018. The tenant had never paid him any rent. While he waited for the LTB to consider his application to terminate the tenancy, he was living in a trailer without utilities and visiting shelters to get out of the cold.

• In October 2022, a landlord advised that both tenants in a building he owned had stopped paying rent earlier in the year. His applications to terminate the tenancies had still not been heard. One tenant eventually moved out, but left the unit severely damaged and uninhabitable. As a result of the financial hardship the situation had caused him, the landlord was living in his car.

• In a particularly compelling case, a woman who lived in her basement and leased the upper half of her home while she was dying of stage 4 lung cancer. She had filed an application in December 2021 to end the tenancy of the unit for personal use – so she could pass away in a peaceful environment. Her request for an expedited hearing was approved, and the matter was scheduled for hearing on February 24, 2022. However, it was adjourned to March 9 because there were too many cases to be heard that day. On March 9, the woman waited for her virtual hearing to start, only to learn that it had not been properly scheduled. When the matter was finally heard on March 18, the application was dismissed because she had failed to include the unit number on her application. By then, the tenants had not paid rent for several months and were tormenting her during her final days – shooting video of visitors to the home, releasing their dogs to harass nurses and medical suppliers, blasting music all day, and shouting obscenities. Police were also called to the home repeatedly to address death threats against the woman and sexual harassment of her daughter. The woman was forced to start the application process all over again. She passed away May 1, 2022, with the matter still before the Board and unresolved.

• A man applied in March 2020 to end a tenancy so he could move a live-in personal support worker into the basement unit of his home. The worker was to help care for his 25-year-old daughter, who has a rare genetic neurological disorder affecting her ability to speak, walk, eat, and breathe. He was concerned that he would lose the caregiver if he wasn’t able to move her into the home. He was denied an expedited hearing on the basis that there was no safety issue.

23rd Annual Golf Tournament $85,000 raised for our Charitable Foundation

The 23rd Annual Greater Toronto Apartment Association Golf Tournament in support of the GTAA Charitable Foundation was held on Tuesday, May 30, 2023.

Our completely sold-out event drew 288 golfers for a great day at Station Creek in Gormley. Continuing with our early season tournament, the weather was ideal for everyone’s first golf of the year. To top it off, the day was spent eating ice cream, sipping lattes, devouring delicious porchetta and brisket sandwiches. Then followed with some cocktails and sushi on the patio. And so many huge prizes: $1,500 Air Canada; 60 bottles of wine with a $500 LCBO boost; Toronto FC, Blue Jays and Raptors tickets; and many others. And every golfer received a $50 Home Depot gift card on their way in to start the day.

This event is only possible with the generous sponsorship of our members, especially our Headline Sponsors.

Thanks to everyone who sponsored our event, donated prizes and all the players who participated.

This is our main fundraising event and the proceeds are donated to a variety of local organizations to support their terrific community programs. With our industry’s support this year’s event raised a record $85,000 for our Charitable Foundation. We will present this, and more, to worthy groups during our annual dinner on October 19, 2023. Note that we will be celebrating our 25th year as an organization.

Special thanks to all the volunteers who put everything together to make sure you had a great day. Congratulations to all the ‘best of’ players who received recognition for their stellar efforts on the links.

Our Grand Prize winner – Nikki Guzzo –took home a $1,500 Air Canada gift card.

Our golf tournament offers the opportunity to make great contacts, network with industry peers, see friends, enjoy a delicious meal, win fabulous prizes and have a fun day away from the office … all while raising much need money for very deserving organizations that rely on our Charitable Foundation.

See you next year!

Hole Plus

Hole

Longest Drive Hole in One Closest to the Pin

Ice Cream Fiat Café Fresh Fruit Porchetta Sliders

Scoring Driving Range Breakfast Wine Draw

Cocktail Reception

GTAA Golf Tournament

Rentsafe Changes

Rentsafe is Toronto’s bylaw enforcement program that was established in 2017. Prior to this, the former MultiResidential Apartment Buildings (MRAB) Audit and Enforcement program was a proactive building inspection program launched in 2008. Both were created to ensure building maintenance, and the current program added access to additional information for tenants and introduced a registry with an annual fee per unit.

The Rentsafe requirements apply to all apartment buildings (but not condominiums) with 3 or more storeys and with 10 or more units. This represents a stock of nearly 315,000 units contained in 3,500 apartment buildings. Modifications were made over the past two years and have been applied to the current inspection cycle (June – November 2023). Previously, the highest scoring buildings were subject to an evaluation inspection every third year, and middle scoring buildings were inspected every other year. Only the lowest scoring buildings were evaluated annually. This was a practical approach as it did not waste time by visiting a building with a 93 score with the same frequency as a 54 score. However, the new process will see all 3,500 buildings evaluated every other year. The City has not advised if the lowest scoring addresses will be visited annually (as they were before), or if they now are part of the 2-year regiment. It would make more sense and be more efficient to visit these addresses more frequently instead of creating a rigid system. GTAA has identified this inefficiency and has been assured that MLS will reassess this after a complete two-year cycle.

The former process included 20 equally weighted categories each scored out of 5. The new process expands to 50 categories scored out of 3, with weighted scoring. There are 26 ‘high risk’ categories which will be weighted x 3%; 24 ‘moderate risk’ categories which are weighted x 2%; and 10 ‘cosmetic’ categories weighted x 0.5.% This proactive scoring with new categories and weights will also be reassessed in 2 years time.

Building owners can now request a re-evaluation, instead of waiting for the next scheduled visit in two years. The City is charging $329.81 for cost recovery of a reinspection.

Once building evaluation is complete, full evaluation report is shared with the building owner (via portal). The building owner has 15 days to apply for re-evaluation and pay the fee. You will then have 30 days to fix noncompliance issues. Inspectors will return within 15 days to re-evaluate your building.

Previously, full building audits were conducted when an evaluation score was 50 or lower. Moving forward, audits will be conducted on the lowest 2.5% of the scores, regardless of the actual value. For now this doesn’t move the mark significantly. GTAA has expressed that this method would be inherently unfair if the best of the lowest 2.5% were achieving scores in the high 60s or low 70s. MLS has generally agreed and will revisit this threshold and make appropriate adjustments.

Newly added to the proactive score (building evaluation) is ‘reactive data’. In simple terms, it appears that this is similar to a demerit system where 1 point could be deducted for an order to comply or notice of violation, and up to 2 points for an emergency order. A deduction for an order to comply and/or notice of violation would be applied to the building score for 30 days. A deduction for an emergency order would be applied for 4 months.

If a building owner takes an Order to Comply or Notice of Violation to the Property Standards Appeal Committee (PSAC) the reduction to the score will be removed only if: PSAC issues and extension; or a decision has been made to rescind the order or notice.

The City completed and analyzed 305 building evaluations as part of their pilot program. They used the new system and found that 70 buildings (23%) had a large variance (above 8%) between the new 50-category versus the old 20-category scoring methods. There are many reasons why this may have occurred. More important was that 61% of the buildings achieved higher scores using the new system, while 12% experienced no variance. In other words, 73% saw the same of better outcome. However 27% of the buildings in this pilot saw a lower score.

There weren’t major scoring trends based on ownership (private, social, TCHC), building size (unit count), or even age (aside from extremely high scores for very new buildings). Here’s a summary graphic of the pilot study.

Impact on Building Size, Type & Age

The City has asked that owners/PMs make sure that a current email address be entered into their registration and renewal process. Please update this key email address, should it change during the course of the year.

Real Data

Meaningful long-term solutions to societal issues must be fact-based, but more often than not political decisions are made in the absence of actual data. Many housing policies are the byproduct of media attention, which often seeks to find extreme situations to attract readers/viewers, rather than a balanced position which typically demonstrates the majority’s experience. Many liken politicians as an echo chamber of today’s headlines. With four-year election cycles this leads to very bad, very shortsighted, simply self-serving policies. Housing has often been a hot topic as it affects everyone, one way or another. We are in the midst of changes that have not been fact-based and may be in for more.

What do the real numbers reveal?

Yardi Canada and Urbanation independently produce quarterly reports containing a wealth of actual data. This edition will feature Yardi’s recent findings, and next edition will include Urbanation’s information.

Yardi’s most recent Q2 2023 Canadian National Multifamily Report was published in July 2023. Note that Yardi generates its report by utilizing actual values in aggregate (anonymous) form from 4,200 properties representing more than 450,000 privately owned multifamily rental units across Canada. In their publication, Yardi cited a report on purpose-built rentals (PBR) by Canada’s Building Industry and Land Development Association and banking and policy groups, which stated that more than 300,000 new renter households will be created in Canada over the next decade. Rentals are better suited than homeownership to the fastest-growing demographic groups in Canada, the report notes. Apartment supply, however, gets built slowly due to construction costs that are rising faster than rents and regulatory overreach. Over the last decade, PBR accounted for 41% of the demand for housing but only 9% of new supply in the greater Toronto area, while 90% of PBR stock is at least 40 years old, per the report.

It has been widely reported that Canada’s population increased by more than 1 million (2.7%) in 2022, and will continue to rise largely due to our Federal government’s Immigration Levels Plan which expects 505,000 new permanent residents in 2023, and another 1 million over the next two years.

Yardi summarizes that “rent growth in Canada shows no signs of abating, as supply is not keeping up with demand created by the strong economy and population growth.”

In-place rents represent an aggregation of all rents in a given Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), including those for new leases, renewals and existing leases. In the Toronto CMA the Year-Over-Year In-Place Rent Growth was less than 6%.

In-Place Rents

National & Major CMAs

New Lease Rent Growth National & Major CMAs

New leases are a good measure of supply-demand fundamentals since they are not subject to rent control (via vacancy decontrol). National lease-over-lease rents – which represent new leases for the same units that are released after becoming vacant – increased by 12.2% year-over-year in Q2 2023. In the Toronto CMA led the country in the leaseover-lease growth which was 18.7% yearover-year. This was followed KitchenerCambridge-Waterloo at 17.1% and rounded out by Vancouver with the third highest at 16.0%. The national average was 12.2%.

Rent, Vacancy, Turnover by CMA

Annual turnover rates are extremely low across Canada at just 6.7% in Q2 2023. This is an increase from Q1 2023, but below the average 7.4% turnover rate in the previous three second quarters. The national vacancy rate has stabilized and is just 2.7%.

In Alberta, which does not have rent control, the Q2 2023 turnover rate was 10.5% (Edmonton was 10.7%, and Calgary was 9.4%). Alberta’s housing stock is more abundant than rent controlled provinces.

Toronto’s quarterly turnover rate was only 3.2%, and it was merely 4.2% across Ontario. Existing renters are not moving. The housing system is clogged. Many who would have moved up into higher cost housing – thereby freeing up lower cost housing for young people, new family formations, immigrants, and others – are staying in place and benefitting from price controls without a correlating means test. Rent control indiscriminately creates a financial incentive for high income individuals and families at a cost to those who need financial assistance.

Review of the real data makes a very strong case for substantially increasing the supply of purpose-built multifamily rental housing.

Vacancy Trends National & Major CMAs

Here’s a link to Yardi’s Q2 2023 Canadian National Multifamily Report

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