RentON: Looking For The Right Place To Call ‘Home’

It’s been a few years since I’ve been living with the now fiancé while renting an apartment in Toronto, and since moving day, I have loved every minute of it. The process leading up to moving day however was anything but easy.

With rates rising in the housing market, it’s almost impossible to find the right place to start a life, and condo life is now no different. It was months of searching apartment buildings and condos before we found the rental that we are currently in, and to be honest, I felt like it was pure luck that we stumbled into it.

Initially we found it difficult to find a spot that was conveniently located, a new and updated building, the right amenities and at the price point that wouldn’t have us becoming homebodies for life, but inevitably, it all worked out. We now have amazing landlords, a beautiful well-kept building and in an area that makes it convenient for me to get anywhere while the fiancé can hop on the road and head to work in Vaughan.

As much as I can look back on the struggles and be thankful for how it turned out, there is no denying that housing is at a crisis level in Ontario’s largest cities like Toronto, due to the shockingly poor rental housing supply and escalating house and condo prices. With average house prices increasing by 15.3% year after year in Ontario, which will only grow more, and the average detached home in Toronto selling for roughly $1.3 million, there are so many reasons why millennials, new immigrants, and aging boomers are stuck looking for rent options in their preferred areas and at a price that they can manage.

When we began looking to rent our apartment, we wanted to take into consideration our lifestyle as well, so that once we moved in, we wouldn’t have to compromise our way of life and the activities we liked to partake in. We also had a budget in mind, which of course narrows down the search. And now with rental housing supply diminishing, there will be far less housing choices for renters.

To address this problem, the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO) has launched the ‘Rent On’ campaign with the goal of encouraging more supply for renting in Toronto and the only way to do this is if more rental units are built.

“Ontario’s scarce rental housing supply combined with escalating house and condo prices have created a housing crisis in our biggest cities,” said Jim Murphy, president of FRPO. “The only solution is for Ontario to build itself out of this situation. This begins with our provincial leaders working with industry to identify and implement policies that create more purpose-built rental units, not less.”

Rent On is now encouraging Ontarians to request that the provincial government take measures to allow for more housing choices for renters by introducing amendments to Bill 124 so that more Ontarians can ensure there are adequate rental housing options.

It’s imperative that we take the steps we need to ensure that there are rental-housing options for those in need, and for someone who understands the struggles of finding an apartment that you love, the pickings will only get slimmer if we don’t take action. The fact that my apartment is not only a place for living, but a place for my work as I work from home as a blogger, I can only hope that those in Toronto looking for a space to love will find exactly what they are looking for in the area of their dreams!

For more information, and to learn more, visit www.rent-on.ca and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #rentON.

Follow