TorontoRealtyBlog I suppose I spoiled the ending, didn’t I? The rental market is no longer “tough,” I said. But maybe it depends on who you ask, what you read, and where? “Weak Condo Market In Downtown Toronto Leads To Dip In Rental Rates, Increased Vacancy” Globe & Mail February 7th, 2024 That headline definitely jives with what I saw and felt over the past three months, and you’ll see this shortly in the Q1 rental stats. But I also noted this headline: “It’s Never Been Harder To Rent In Canada – Vacancy Rates Fall To 35-Year Low” RBC Special Reports February 1st, 2024 Of course, that hea ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog You know that saying about the slow car-wreck? You just can’t look away. Can you? Then sometimes, you almost anticipate the car-wreck, and morbidly (if this is an analogy…) prepare yourself for the spectacle. That’s how I’ve felt about the 2024 national budget for the last few weeks, and while the budget won’t be released until April 16th, I’m already anxious about it. I want to try not to make this blog post political since it’s supposed to be about the newly-announced Renters Bill of Rights.  But I personally believe that the country is far worse off in ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog Better late than never here, I suppose? This is a quarterly feature here on the Toronto Realty Blog and I’m having trouble believing that the last time we worked through these numbers, the summer had ended and it was just after Labour Day. Now here we are in the thick of winter. Then again, this doesn’t really feel like winter, does it?  How many times have we shoveled snow so far?  Maybe twice? I don’t believe in jinxes, so if it snows this weekend, it wasn’t my fault! I also don’t want to jinx the newfound reprieve in the rental market that ten ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog We’ve talked a lot this year about tenancy. I’ve written blogs from the perspective of both tenants who have a bad landlord, and landlords who have a bad tenant, and all the while, we’ve debated the protections that tenants enjoy in this province in 2023, and whether or not they’re unfair to landlords. Both landlords and tenants can abuse the system and do. But I feel as though in the past year, the sentiments, especially from those who comment here on TRB, have turned very much in favour of protecting landlords as we move forward. I have a story in the queue, which ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog I was young. Once… And now, perhaps not so much. A colleague of mine, who we’ll just call “A. Ettinger,” is one of the younger agents in the business and with our brokerage, and we got to chatting the other day. Actually, I’m going to call her “Anya E.”  just because that’s a little more anonymous, but in any event, we were discussing this phenomenon of “shared accommodations” and how it’s no longer a running joke in the city. Anya has been sharing her thoughts on shared accommodations on this thing called “Tik Tok,” which apparently has nothing to do with clocks, and sh ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog What does it mean to be free? I know, I know, you’re thinking, “Oh geez, what’s David about to go on about this time?” Is this going to be a lecture on libertarianism? Not quite. But I would like to introduce the concept of “freedom” as we delve into the debate about how and if the prevalence of AirBnB rentals is exacerbating the housing crisis in Canada. I believe in many freedoms. Freedom of choice.  Freedom of thought.  Freedom of speech.  Freedom of information.  Freedom of movement.  Political freedom.  Personal freedom.  ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog I read an article by CBC News the other day that drew a link between our competitive rental market and people’s mental health. I suppose it was just a matter of time before this headline appeared: “Toronto’s Pressurized Rental Market Is Affecting People’s Mental Health.” You know I always read the comments, not because they’re necessarily intelligent, relevant, or accurate, but because I like to know what the masses are thinking. Here’s the very first comment: Why is it, in the last 20 yrs pretty much anything and everything that is perceived to be negative ends up having st ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog The Montagues and the Capulets did not like each other. In fact, if we’re being completely honest, we could use the word “hate.” While Romeo and Juliet eventually did get together and provide us with both a romance and a tragedy, each atop their respective lists of all-time romances and tragedies, this was a work of fiction, after all. Perhaps William Shakespeare’s greatest accomplishment, Romeo & Juliet featured two powerful houses, both with financial and political might, both with grandiose aspirations, and both who would stop at nothing t ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog I really, really, really don’t like telling these stories. I mean, I have to.  Stories like this are too good not to share. But every time I tell a story about an unscrupulous landlord in downtown Toronto, it gives ammunition to those that feel we need more legislation to protect tenants, when in reality, the current legislation is so incredibly unfair toward landlords that it makes landlording borderline untenable. Some people will cheer that result, however. The ill-informed will rejoice!  “No more landlords!” they’ll cry!  “Properties are ..read more

TorontoRealtyBlog My team secured four leases for tenant clients last week. Big news? Maybe.  Maybe not. Leasing isn’t the sexiest topic in Toronto real estate but we’re at that time of the year where every lease comes with a story. Ask me how many leases were submitted on behalf of those four lease clients. More than four? Um, yeah. How about twelve? Six for one set of tenants, if you can believe it.  Three for another tenant, two for another, and then a “one-and-done” for an extremely lucky tenant. And it’s not that these are poor calibre tenants, but rather market conditions ..read more