Canadian companies Sparrow Living and SpacesShared are attempting to turn unused bedrooms into longer-term rentals to help mitigate the country’s housing affordability crisis
Two companies are trying to tap an unused part of the housing market by matching students and other renters with homeowners who have empty bedrooms.
“We all know how long it can take to build new housing,” said Oren Singer, Sparrow’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “Our premise was, perhaps one part of the solution might be looking at our existingsupply and trying to make it easier and safer for homeowners to rent out that extra space,” he said.
The average asking rent across the country is more than $2,000 a month, according to Rentals.ca, with prices climbing more than 20 per cent year-over-year in Burnaby, B.C., Laval, Que., and the Toronto suburbs of Mississauga, Brampton and Vaughan. The typical price of a home in Canada is over $750,000.With record levels of newcomers and new permanent residents being admitted to Canada over the past few years, demand for housing has increased.
SpacesShared has partnered with Georgian College in Barrie, Ont., and Humber College in Toronto, and is close to teaming up with several other universities and colleges across the country. Their partner schools promote SpacesShared to their student body as well as make introductions to key community members so SpacesShared can quickly build trust and convince homeowners to rent their empty rooms.
That was the case for 63-year-old Brigitte Sharpe, who said it was a great way to earn revenue, meet new people and help young people secure housing. She missed having company after her son moved out of her two-bedroom apartment in Toronto a few years ago. After hearing a positive review about Sparrow, she decided to list her room.
Sparrow and SpacesShared match hosts and renters on compatibility. The host and renter have a chance to meet each other on the platform before they sign rental agreements.Both services take a cut of the rental revenue. For Sparrow, it is a one-time fee. That is based on the length of the lease and ranges from one-quarter of the month’s rent to the full month. For SpacesShared, it is a continuing payment of $25 a month.
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