Rental towers, mid-rise, and student beds, priced on the income in place, not the income promised.

For thirty years Canada built condominiums and called it rental supply. That has reversed. The federal rebate that removed GST from new rental construction in September 2023, the $55-billion Apartment Construction Loan Program behind it, and CMHC-insured financing that rewards affordability and energy performance have made purpose-built rental the default institutional residential product in Ontario and Alberta. Starts are up, the condo pre-sale model is stalled, and the capital that used to buy units one at a time now wants buildings.

What separates a rental building from a stack of condos is the rent roll. Turnover, in-place rent against market, the share of tenants under rent control, and the operating margin decide value more than the finish package does. In Ontario, buildings first occupied after November 2018 are exempt from the guideline, which puts two otherwise identical towers in different asset classes. In Alberta there is no guideline at all, and the underwriting question becomes how far a market can absorb renewal increases before turnover costs more than it earns. We underwrite both markets on the roll, lease by lease.

Student housing is a separate discipline that sits beside this one. The beds near a campus lease on a twelve-month academic cycle, fill in a six-week window, and carry a covenant that is the institution and its enrolment rather than the individual tenant. The 2024 and 2025 caps on international study permits repriced that covenant overnight, and buildings that were sold on enrolment growth are now sold on domestic demand and proximity. Off-campus purpose-built student residences, whether operated or master-leased to the institution, are the part of the market we work; we do not broker rooming houses or converted single-family stock.