With the rental market in an interesting state, what will the future hold? Downtown Airbnbs are starting to be listed as long-term rentals. This means the supply is rising in the downtown core. Prices of rentals are starting to drop. But how wiling will a landlord be? Landlords are caught in between having money for their mortgage and being picky with tenants (considering the times we are in).
Once you move away from the downtown core, you will find (Condo) supply vs. demand is less. Recently, mostly in the areas I work in, like Vaughan, North York, Richmond Hill and Markham, I find landlords being stricter on who they choose as tenants. As a landlord during COVID, it is scary times. What if there is a second wave? What if the government brings out the no eviction rule again? What if the Landlord and Tenant Board closes again?
All these factors can make the rental process difficult for both landlords and tenants. From my experience in the last couple months, I notice landlords are generally not accepting tenants who work for small companies (as much). I even had an agent ask me for a FULL YEAR’S DEPOSIT because the tenants’ IDs were expired. Expired IDs while Service Ontario was closed (SMH) My client had already offered 5 months in advance, but this agent got a little brave and asked for a mortgage deposit as a rental deposit. The point is, I find myself asking (not forcing) my clients, to consider putting in more than 2 months deposit if they can afford it. I want to state that as a landlord, it is illegal to request for more than two months rent deposit, but as a tenant, you can “willingly” offer it.
We are living very strange times. Landlords fear having to take mortgage deferrals and tenants are scrambling to find a place. The rental market is all over the place right now, but being mostly an “Uptown” North GTA realtor myself, I find my turn around times for lease clients are much longer. More showings, more offers, more documentation and higher deposit amounts are sometimes needed for each client. As a tenant, it is hard to put yourself in the landlord’s shoes and vice versa. My suggestion is: have all your documents ready, start looking ahead of time, and use a realtor you trust.