Khalil Alibi
The trend of the "financialized landlord" allows outside investors to share in the profit of rental housing. Some tenants and housing experts believe this model is leading to higher rents across Canada, as the pressure to increase shareholder value becomes the top priority., who lives with his wife and three children in Toronto, says the rent for his three-bedroom unit is now $1,761 per month, up from $1,472 in December 2019, the year Starlight Investments purchased the building.
Some tenants and housing experts believe this model is leading to higher rents across Canada, as the pressure to increase shareholder value becomes the top priority and these companies expand their share of the country's rental stock.According to research by Martine August, a housing expert at the University of Waterloo, the biggest financial firms now collectively own close to 400,000 suites — nearly 20 per cent of the purpose-built multi-family rental units in Canada.
According to August's research, financialized landlords purchased 90 per cent of all rental stock that came up for sale in Toronto in 2020.In a statement, Penny Colomvakos, vice-president of residential operations at Starlight, said the company's units "account for only a fraction of the total of purpose-built rental market, and a majority of our suites are rented at or below average rents for purpose-built apartments.
According to research done by Steve Pomeroy, a professor and special advisor to the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative at McMaster University in Hamilton, between 2011 and 2021, Canada lost more than 550,000 affordable rental units."They are still there, for the most part, but they are no longer affordable. The rents have just gone up beyond that affordability threshold," Pomeroy said."This building used to be affordable.
In an email to CBC, Starlight's Colomvakos wrote: "The AGI is limited to completed investments of a structural nature in balcony and building repairs, as well as lighting retrofits and booster pump replacements for the safety and comfort of residents." Many of the rent strikers in and around Alibi's building are now facing eviction applications from Starlight. These tenants say they're appealing the Landlord and Tenant Board ruling and will continue their rent strike until further notice.
Sandra McCrone, who rents in a Calgary building owned by Avenue Living REIT, is trying to organize a tenants' union in the hopes of stopping rent hikes. "Ninety per cent of the buildings in are over 45 years old. If your house is 45 years old, you're on your second roof, your second set of windows, new door, new furnace, new air conditioner," said Brooks. "It's the same with apartment buildings.… They depreciate and it takes a lot of money .""The human right to housing is a government obligation at the federal level, and I've gone back to the UN source documents on this," he said.
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