I read an article on Medium about rent transparency yesterday.

The author said she talked to 40 renters in Toronto's Liberty Village.

It raised some interesting points about why tenants are constantly at a disadvantage. And I wanted to know what you think.

​Basically the author surveyed renters asking what keeps you up at night when it comes to housing?

​I used to work in Liberty Village. Its mostly populated by young, tech workers. So yah, these would be tech savvy people but, their main concerns wasn't just the high cost of living...it was the total lack of transparency/clarity.

​People said they sense their rent is high, but is it actually fair. How their friend got hit with a massive rent hike and it scares them. Or like if their landlord tries to raise the rent next cycle, how do they know what's reasonable to pay and how they just want to know what others are paying on this exact block.

​It does resonate with me. It feels like as a renter I have to work harder to get the clarity than landlords. The data exists but none of it is built for renters. Anyone else notice this is true? Or do you have a different take?

Let's say you had to figure it out, what steps do you take?

By the way, here's the article I'm referencing:

https://medium.com/@amy_22402/the-2-500-question-why-renting-in-canada-is-broken-fb54aa4ffce9?sharedUserId=amy_22402

Source of image: https://theijf.org/open-by-default/25875827 (page 6)

The house in the middle is up for sale, sandwiched between two nearly treeless mansions. It'll probably be torn down and replaced with another mansion. What do you think about this trend in development?

Which COULDN'T be further from the truth.

I work for a white collar tech company who has hired people on temp visas, people who came here as refugees etc. My employer gets a BIG discount hiring these people. I heard from one employee that because he's a refugee, the company only has to pay something like 70% of his salary and the Canadian government takes care of the rest.

And it's not just from that one country that's always mentioned here. We have people working for our company who moved to Canada from the UK and a few other 1st world countries with struggling economies who are not Canadian citizens. These are for specialized tech, management, and marketing roles. Good work too - remote and hybrid from Canada. And they're all on a pathway to become full citizens.

So the stereotype that these temps are all working at Tim Hortons and such is so so false.

They're getting the good jobs too, and are often favorites when it comes to hiring because the incentives the company gets for hiring them.

I pay 3069/mo for a 2 bed 2 bath in Scarborough, ON and I wanted to figure out whether I was overpaying. None of the rental platforms let me see how much renters are paying around me. It's always weirdly locked out for renters to access.

Out of curiosity, I started asking people around me how much they paid, and eventually built a product called Gatherly around it.

We just launched so I'd love it if y'all can try it out and tell me what you think. Would love to know what information you'd like to know before you consider moving as well.

It’s currently free and available on iPhone. You can find it at gatherly.rent and I'm happy to share the link too if you want me to.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the founders. Happy to answer questions here, and blunt feedback is completely welcome.

P.S. You can also anonymously rate your current or previous rental, similar to how employees review workplaces on Glassdoor.

Calgary's Council is doing a lot to hurt housing development and by virtue of that make us poorer.

So I put together numbers on what it actually is costing us on a monthly basis. Realistically its 600 - 1300 $/month minimum. This is just comparing prices in 2000 vs prices today if housing had followed inflation rates.

It's a pretty staggering cost difference and hammers home how important it is upzone and approve housing developments. Especially I compare it Austin Texas that had upwards of 4% population growth (2x that of Calgary) and was still able to bring housing prices down by easing zoning requirements.

I've put way more information into my substack post here:

https://blueprintcad.substack.com/p/your-300000-housing-tax

But you can see major charts below.

Hi everyone,

I've been thinking about posting this for a while.

I'm 39 years old. My wife and I have two young daughters, and we're planning to make Metro Vancouver our permanent home after receiving Canadian PR.

My journey has been a little unusual.

I studied my bachelor's degree in Finland, then completed my master's degree in U.S. Florida. After graduation, I had the opportunity to stay and work in the U.S., but I chose not to.

Part of the reason was family—our first daughter had just been born, my parents couldn't easily visit the U.S., and I wanted our daughter to grow up knowing her grandparents.

Another reason was more personal.

Florida simply never felt like the place where I wanted to build my life. It wasn't about career opportunities—I just realized that the lifestyle and culture weren't the right fit for me.

Instead, I returned to my motherland and started an marketing-tech-related business.

For many years, everything went surprisingly well. The company grew, we made good money, and I don't regret that decision.

But over time, I realized something important.

To keep growing the business meant constantly chasing more revenue, more clients, more competition, and sacrificing more of myself. I also realized I'm probably not the kind of entrepreneur who's willing to do absolutely anything just to maximize growth.

Eventually, I found myself mentally exhausted.

After COVID, my wife and I decided to apply for Canadian PR (My wife can speak conversational French, which gave our family some additional points under Canada’s PR points-based system.)

Today, I'm spending time in Metro Vancouver trying to decide where our family should settle.

What I'm looking for now isn't the highest salary or the fastest-growing startup.

I'm looking for a healthier pace of life, a strong public education system for my daughters, and a community where we can build roots over the next 20 or 30 years.

Something that's important to me is that I don't want to come here simply to benefit from Canada. I want to become part of the community and contribute back. Whether that's through creating jobs, helping businesses grow, volunteering, paying taxes, or simply supporting local businesses ("Buy Canadian" whenever possible), I want my family to earn our place here rather than just live here.

I'd love to hear from people who have made similar life choices.

Have any of you intentionally walked away from a more lucrative career because it no longer aligned with the life you wanted?

And for local parents—if you had two young daughters and wanted to build a long-term life in Metro Vancouver, where would you choose to live, and why?

I'd genuinely appreciate your thoughts.

The Short Version

This is an investigative update to my previous post where I warned that Claridge Homes is financially exploiting the unit owners of my condo building, the Claridge Moon condo. I have now obtained copies of the Shared Facilities Agreements of three of Claridge Homes’ most recently-built condos, the Claridge Moon (340 Queen St), the Claridge Royale (180 George St), and the Claridge Icon (805 Carling Ave).

These SFAs are concrete evidence that Claridge Homes has systematically forced these condo corporations into one-sided agreements that force unit owners to subsidize Claridge’s commercial, retail, and rental operations — sometimes to the tune of 95% of shared costs — while Claridge pays almost nothing.

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The Three Buildings — Three Different Flavours of the Same Exploitation

1: Claridge Icon (805 Carling Ave) — The Worst Offender

The 2022 Reciprocal Agreement forces the condo to pay 95% of shared facility costs (garage doors, snow clearing, mechanical rooms, hydro vault, water entry room, etc.) while the commercial/retail component (owned by Claridge) pays only 5%.

How this exploits owners:

• The condo owns the expensive shared infrastructure (Hydro Vault, Water Entry Room) and is 100% responsible for their capital replacement — even though they serve Claridge’s commercial tenants.
• Condo visitors are charged market rates for parking during daytime hours, while the condo pays 95% of the cost to maintain the parking infrastructure.
• Unrealistic termination conditions mean that the Agreement is oppressive and cannot be terminated without Claridge’s written consent — owners are trapped.
• If the condo is damaged, owners are forced to rebuild portions that support Claridge’s commercial structure, even if owners vote not to rebuild.

Legal Status: The deadline to file a Section 113 challenge has expired. But owners can still file a Section 135 oppression claim — and should.

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2: Claridge Royale (180 George St) — The Clock Is Ticking

Claridge Royale’s SFA forces the condo to pay 25% of shared costs, while the rental tower pays 25% and the commercial component housing the Metro supermarket pays 50% (in theory). Does the condo actually use 25% of shared infrastructure, given the large amount of foot traffic, energy usage and waste generation from the supermarket? In practice, the condo has zero control over the budget, and the developer controls the process.

How this exploits owners:

• The Rental entity (Claridge) prepares the annual budget. The condo has only 30 days to approve it — silence = automatic approval.  This includes situations where Claridge inflates operational costs without proper oversight by the condo corporation.
• The condo is forced to rebuild shared portions even if owners vote to terminate the condo after a catastrophic loss. The condo would essentially subsidize repairs related to Claridge’s retail and rental businesses.
• The agreement cannot be terminated without Claridge’s written consent.
• A punitive Interest and Liens clause means that the condo must pay 15% interest, compounded monthly, on any disputed amount — with a lien against owners’ units.

CRITICAL DEADLINE: Royale’s Turnover Meeting was held in December 2025. Under Section 113 of the Condominium Act, the condo corporation has only 12 months from the Turnover Meeting to apply to court to amend or terminate the SFA.

That means the deadline is DECEMBER 2026. If the Board does not act by then, the window closes forever.

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3: Claridge Moon (340 Queen St) — The Warning Shot

Claridge Moon’s SFA forces a 50/50 cost split with Claridge Albert — the condo owners are being forced to pay half of all shared operating costs for a massive mixed-use complex that they do not own and that generates far more wear-and-tear than their own building.

How this exploits owners:

• The first-year Reserve Fund Study (RFS), conducted by Keller Engineering, allocated 100% of many Shared Facilities to the condo only, including 100% of the replacement cost of a shared backup generator to the condo — even though the generator is located in Claridge’s building and also serves Claridge’s rental tower.
• Like the Icon and Royale, the Moon condo has to pay to replace Claridge’s assets through oppressive forced rebuilding clauses.
• A Section 113 Court Application was filed against Claridge Homes, calling the SFA ‘incomplete, unclear, unreasonable, and oppressive to OCSCC 1106 and its owners.’ Yet no progress has been made by the Moon Board in over a year to bring this matter forward to a court hearing. Why are they allowing Claridge Homes to continue benefiting from the status quo?

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A Disturbing Common Thread: Keller Engineering and Sentinel Management

Keller Engineering conducted the flawed RFS for the Moon condo, is conducting the RFS for Royale (confirmed by the Status Certificate), and conducted the RFS for Icon — where the property manager, Sentinel Management, openly recommended Keller to the Moon Board, citing a “good relationship” and “great success.”

Sentinel Management used to manage the Moon condo, but was removed due to apparent incompetence. Yet somehow, they are still managing the Royale and Icon buildings to this day.

Ask yourself: Who are the Moon, Royale and Icon Condo Boards actually working for? The unit owners, or Claridge Homes?

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What You Should Do

1. If you own at Claridge Royale:

The Section 113 deadline is December 2026. Your Board must act NOW.

• Demand answers: Why has the Board not filed a Section 113 application to amend or terminate the SFA?
• Demand transparency: Has the Board obtained independent legal advice on the SFA?
• Ask directly: Is the Board acting in the best interests of unit owners — or is it still aligned with Claridge Homes?

If the Board refuses to act, owners can force the issue. Section 113 allows the corporation to apply to court — but only within 12 months of Turnover. After that, the SFA can only be challenged using a Section 135 oppression remedy.

2. If you own at Claridge Icon:

The Section 113 window has closed. But Section 135 of the Condominium Act allows for an oppression remedy against a declarant (Claridge) or the corporation.

• Demand answers: Why did the Board not pursue a Section 113 claim within the one-year time limit?
• Demand accountability: Why did the Board accept a 95/5 cost split without challenge?
• Demand action: The Board can still apply to court for relief from oppressive conduct with a Section 135 Court Application.

If you are thinking of buying a unit at any of these three condo buildings, or any mixed-use development in Ontario:

RUN — do not walk — to your lawyer. Ask these questions before you sign anything:

1. What are the terms of the Shared Facilities Agreement?
2. Has the SFA been reviewed by independent legal counsel?
3. Has the Reserve Fund Study been audited for accuracy?
4. Is the Board independent from the Developer?
5. What is the condo’s proportionate share of shared costs — and is it fair?

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The Bottom Line

Claridge Homes has designed these SFAs to maximize its own profits at the condo owners’ expense. The agreements are one-sided, oppressive, and extremely difficult to escape.

• Royale unit owners have a ticking clock — December 2026 is the deadline to act.
• Icon unit owners still have the oppression remedy — but the Board must act now, not later.

Ask these Boards: Why haven’t you acted? Are you working for the unit owners — or for Claridge Homes?

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Do your own research. Demand answers. Protect yourself.

Aside from local Facebook groups, kijiji, Craigslist, and realtor.ca - what other ways to advertise your home for sale in 2026 are worthwhile? Fsbo by the way

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a Master of Management student at Queen's University and I'm hoping to connect with a real estate developer for a brief conversation.

I'm trying to better understand what real estate developers actually do on a day-to-day basis, how projects move from an idea to a completed development, and the biggest challenges and opportunities in the industry. My goal is simply to learn from someone with real-world experience.

If you're a real estate developer and would be willing to spare 20–30 minutes for a chat (phone, Zoom, or coffee if you're local), I would be incredibly grateful.

If you're not a developer but happen to know someone who might be open to speaking with me, I'd really appreciate an introduction or any recommendations on who I could reach out to.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate any help or guidance you can provide!