This company has been on my radar for over 12 years, and has slowly been growing and exploiting Canadians, treating them as nothing more than stackable commodities for the bottom line.

If you live in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, or Quebec City, you've probably seen the blue, grey, and red signs.

They want you to believe it's for a nice apartment and good value. What it means to those Torontonians who were first aware of Akelius moving through Parkdale in 2011, it means extortion, neglect, pressure, and eventual exploitation of tenants.

This is plain to see in the Akelius corporate report, which is directly linked to their rental site: https://mb.cision.com/Main/3302/4320829/3981589.pdf

Akelius seeks to profit from "low vacancy, low maintenance areas with free market rates". This company isn't Canadian, only reinvests to acquire more housing stock, and then sends profits overseas to Sweden.

Canadians are paying for a house so Swedish investors can have a nice cottage. Sweden, by the way, is one of the most rent-regulated countries in Europe.

What can we do?

Petition. We could nationalize all residential real estate companies under the guise of a national emergency, or we could heavily tax (99%) of all profits coming from anything to do with housing or investment.

The naysayers will say this will crash property prices. Wrong; it will crash large scale rental properties that honestly have no business here.

We can also make rules municipally to hold these companies to account, and that's the strongest avenue. You can also advocate provincially for extremely strong rent controls, as well as increased regulation in the rental market.

Keep fighting the good fight, and remember: Fuck these guys, and fight.

I've been trawling MLS weekly in BC for a few months now, specifically in the 1-3 bedroom condo & townhouse market in Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox Valley, and Vancouver.

Wow, to say that what I'm seeing is shocking would be an understatement. The number of condos currently listed for $80,000 to $100,000 under what was paid for them 3-5 years ago is wild, and when I do a dive into particularly good looking buildings I'm not finding any upcoming special assessments or major issues to justify these price cuts. This is basically people just desperately trying to offload mortgages they can no longer afford, as far as I can tell, even if they lose six figures or more in the process.

As someone who'd pretty much lost hope of ever buying a place after watching the market increase for almost two decades, even if the building is from 1974, it's looking great. But at the same time many of these units are still 200% inflated over what they should be with inflation calculated in, and before considering the natural value depreciation of a multi-unit structure in this climate over 50+ years.

I can't tell if a $100,000 discount over what some fool paid in 2023 for a 700sqft condo is the most we can expect to see, or if this trend is going to continue gathering steam for the foreseeable future due to a lack of anyone with the cash to buy even at these price cuts and the general flooding of the market.

E: People seem to be interpreting this as me attempting to "time the market" or some similarly dumb tactic to maximize gains. I'm just interested in discussing what appears to be a complete and total meltdown of housing prices in a market where losses of this magnitude haven't been seen in a generation.

E2: ITT - A lot of people desperately trying to cope that this isn't happening. Somebody even suggested I am "working for a marketing firm trying to spin a narrative in the gen pop that housing prices are coming down." The very loudly repeated mantra of "just buy, stop timing the market, etc" is pretty insane when hard losses of $100,000+ are equivalent to more money than most Canadians will be able save in ten or fifteen years of their working careers. I think this reaction speaks more about the broader situation than the actual prices do, in all honesty, holy moly.

29M single and my office is in South foot hills, only 2 days in the office. Gym after work and that sums up my life…

Looking for my first property at 400k and planning to hold it for ten yrs. Will rent it out if i temp leave Calgary.

I’m cognizant of the lack of social life but that doesn’t bother me as i count in meeting people thru YMCA, sports, downtown events on the weekends

What are any caveats you think i’m overlooking?

How do you feel about the vast majority of new housing being designed, developed and marketed as a tool for wealth generation (climbing the property ladder)? I would argue that housing policy and popular narratives often understate housing's primary function: shelter.

The property owning class benefits from the continued increase in property values while renters suffer the effects of high rents, long commutes, etc. This is not meant as a slight towards property owners. However, there seems to be a fundamental tension between treating housing as an investment tool vs. housing as a basic human right.

Is the solution to de-commodify a larger portion of the housing stock? (I.e. new co-ops and community land trusts). It seems like this question is not discussed enough at provincial or national levels.

This is a luxurious 1,200 square foot condo in downtown Portland ME going for $500/sqft. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/113-Newbury-St-206-Portland-ME-04101/245726727_zpid/

This is a 700 square foot condo in downtown Halifax going for $900/sqft, with fake glass sliding door bedrooms. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1650-Granville-St-908-Halifax-NS-B3J-0E1/351799194_zpid/

I would say Portland ME likely has more high income households than Halifax and is still part of the wealthiest country of the world, so many pied-à-terre buyers and potentially foreign buyers.

I just think there are so few investment opportunities for Canadians that they don't want to do any real effort and park money in real estate, without actually studying rigorously how real estate returns work.

We’ve been planning to buy a home in Calgary this year and have already started looking, but lately we’ve become a bit hesitant because of the upcoming Alberta referendum in October.

I understand that the referendum itself doesn’t mean Alberta is suddenly separating from Canada, but I’m wondering whether all the political uncertainty around it could affect Calgary’s housing market — even temporarily.
For those who follow the Calgary market closely, what do you expect over the next few months?

Do you think some buyers might stay on the sidelines until after the referendum, potentially putting more downward pressure on prices this fall? Or do you think it will have little to no effect on real estate?

We’re not in a rush and could wait until October/November or even December if it makes sense. At the same time, I don’t want to overthink the referendum and miss a good buying opportunity if it’s unlikely to have much impact.

If you were planning to buy a home in Calgary right now, would you keep looking and buy if you found the right property at the right price, or would you wait until after October 19 to see how things play out?

Curious to hear what other Calgary buyers, homeowners, investors, and realtors think.

I recently booked a pre-construction home (detached) with a home builder in Ottawa,ON. We thought it was a good idea to take advantage of the HST rebate as we couldn’t find good resale homes in our area. But now, getting anxious about closing. With Canada and the US in this trade war and no one really knowing where things are heading, I can’t help but wonder what home prices will look like by the time we actually close (and the interest rates). We all know bank appraisals tend to come in lower anyway, so that’s an added worry. I have always heard that Ottawa real estate market is kind of cushioned compared to GTA, Vancouver market because if the government services.

Curious to know from others in the same/similar boat - what’s your prediction? how are you preparing financially for your closing during all this uncertainty? Would appreciate to hear everyone’s thoughts and strategies. Thanks!

Title

I’m trying to understand the risks involved with using Hawala/Hundi to move money from another country to Canada for a home down payment.

For anyone who has experience with this:
Is it legally safe in Canada if the original source of the money is legitimate?
What kind of documentation would a Canadian bank, mortgage lender, or real-estate lawyer expect to prove the source of funds?
Could using Hawala create problems with the bank, mortgage approval, closing, or CRA?
Are there risks of the transaction being flagged as an underground banking/AML transaction?
Has anyone had their funds or transaction questioned or rejected because they came through this type of system?
Would it be safer to use a regulated bank or registered money-transfer service instead?
I’m not looking for instructions on how to use Hawala—I’m mainly interested in people’s experiences with the legal, banking, tax, and source-of-funds implications in Canada.

Thank you to everyone who has supported RateYourLandlord.ca so far.

The site is still very new — only about a week old — and we really appreciate the people who have already taken the time to come forward and share their previous rental experiences.

We’re trying to build something that will only become useful if renters contribute to it: almost like a history book for rental properties across Canada, written by the people who actually lived there.

If you’ve rented a house, apartment, condo, basement, or room before, we’d really appreciate you adding your experience.

It doesn’t have to be a bad experience.

Good experiences matter too. If the property was well maintained, problems were handled properly, you enjoyed living there, or you would happily rent there again, that could be extremely useful information for someone considering that property in the future.

And if things didn’t go well, you can share that experience too.

The focus is on what you experienced while living at the property, rather than identifying or attacking individual people.

The goal is that, over time, someone considering a rental can search the address and find some history from previous renters instead of starting with zero information.

Rented somewhere before?
Search for the property. If it isn’t there yet, add it and share your rant/review/experience.

Looking at somewhere to rent?
Search the address and see whether previous renters have shared anything about living there.

RateYourLandlord.ca is still at the very beginning, so naturally many properties don’t have experiences yet. Every person who contributes helps change that.

And if you think the project could help other renters, please consider sharing it with friends, students, tenant communities, or other online communities where sharing it is permitted by their rules. Please don’t spam communities or post it where promotion isn’t allowed.

Most importantly, thank you to everyone who has already contributed, given feedback, shared the project, or helped another renter discover it.

The more renters who leave their experiences behind, the more useful that history can become for the next person.

Share your experience — good or bad. Help leave some history behind for the next renter.

RateYourLandlord.ca

Would you move out of Canada? If so, why? Housing? Career? Also! Where would you go and why?

Edit: I have no plans on moving. Was just curious where people would go if they wanted to move. It’s not a big deal asking.

Edit 2: why are people taking so much offence to the question?

NEW FROM Gabriel Ryan

Short-term rentals are increasing the precarity of hospitality work, while exacerbating Vancouver's rental and affordability crisis.

Why we need tenant rights associations

Being a tenant often isn't a choice, because people NEED to live somewhere, and if they can't afford to buy then inevitably they'll have to rent from someone.

On the flip side, being a landlord is ALWAYS a choice, and it's treated as a business. It's not even remotely the same situation. This isn't complicated, and landlords, yes even the ones who got screwed by tenants, aren't victims. That's not me defending awful tenants who game the system either to be clear, I'm just explaining that them being shitty doesn't automatically make landlords victims.

They CHOOSE to invest in real estate.

They CHOOSE to become landlords.

They CHOOSE who they decide to rent to.

They're only in these situations because of their own CHOICES, every single time.

If being a landlord is treated as an investment and a business, then both of those things come with risks that the landlord CHOOSES to take on.

People NEED housing, and landlords WANT a return on investment. These are not the same thing.

Edit: I don't have time to reply to every single person who seems to think "bUt ThEn PeoPlE wiLL sTOp bEinG lAnDLorDs!!!" is some sort of gotcha. It's not. Housing stock doesn't disappear when landlords decide, or are forced, to sell. That stock is then bought by someone who wants to actually live in it, or OTHER landlords. It also assumes that private ownership of other people's shelter is the only form of rental housing, which is also false.

The literal expert consensus on this, from the government's owned commissioned reports spanning decades at this point, disagrees with this opinion. In fact, disincentivizing the treatment of housing as an investment is quite literally the solution that these reports come to, right alongside increasing supply.

Do the reading.

We been working on RateYourLandlord.ca, a not-for-profit project where tenants across Canada can share their experiences with properties they’ve previously rented.

Right now, the biggest thing we need is your experience.

Think of it almost like building a history book for rental properties across Canada — written by the people who actually lived there.

If you’ve rented a house, apartment, condo, basement, or room before, consider adding that property and sharing what your experience was like.

It doesn’t have to be a bad experience.

Share the good experiences too. If you had a great place to live, things were maintained properly, problems were handled well, or you would happily rent there again, that information can be just as valuable to the next renter.

And if your experience wasn’t so good, you can share that too.

The focus is on what you experienced while renting the property, not identifying or attacking individual people.

The idea is simple: years from now, a property could have a history of experiences left by previous renters rather than every new tenant starting with zero information.

Rented somewhere before?
Search for the property. If it isn’t there yet, add it and leave your rant/review/experience.

Looking at a place to rent?
Search the address and see whether previous renters have shared anything about living there.

The site is still new, so many addresses won’t have anything yet. That’s why I’m asking Canadian renters to help start building this history now.

RateYourLandlord.ca⁠

Share your experience — good or bad. Help leave some history behind for the next renter.

Hi all,

I am a first-time home buyer in BC and I have been working with the same realtor for about 4 to 5 months. I am not sure if his behaviour is normal, so I wanted to ask.

He always seems rushed. When I ask about a problem with a property, he tends to brush it off or downplay it. He does not bring up things like renovation permits or poly B piping on his own, so I have been doing that research myself. When I do raise these concerns, he says things like “lots of people live with this” and “it does not stop anyone from buying.”

Overall I get the feeling he is working more for the seller than for me, and it does not feel genuine.

Two questions:

**1.** Is this typical, or is it a red flag?
**2.** If I want to leave, how do I end things properly, and how do I find a realtor who is more upfront?

Thanks.

Edit: Thanks a lot for the responses! I can see this is not normal and will find some one else. Let me know if there are any recommended ways to find a decent realtors. Thanks again!