Month: October 2023

Toronto’s city staff will explore if the city can make developers double the number of rental units in a new development after knocking down an apartment building.

After Saxe’s motion was introduced to city council, it was amended by Coun. Chris Moise to touch on the rent gap issue. The motion will now also instruct staff to examine the feasibility of including secondary market data in rent gap payment calculations. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says secondary market rentals include things like houses, condos and duplexs, among other things. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/demoviction-developers-motion-toronto-1.6993687

As Toronto renters feel the squeeze of a competitive market with prices that won’t stop climbing, some in the city are sounding the alarm about a practice they say is displacing them while temporarily taking affordable units off the market: demovictions.

On Monday, No Demovictions held a protest downtown attended by about 100 people who called for demovictions to be stopped. Since 2017, there have been 81 apartment buildings approved for demolition and replacement in Toronto, according to data from the city’s website. Those buildings included 3,225 rental homes and 1,757 affordable units. During those years, 2022 saw the most approvals with 23, after eight approvals in 2021 and 11 in 2020.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/demovictions-rights-for-tenants-1.6984622