It may have been a steamy summer at times, but the Greater Toronto Area’s new condo market was anything but, and isn’t showing signs of warming up any time soon. In fact, Tuesday brought a new report from RBC Economist Robert Hogue describing “a deep freeze with pre-construction sales plummeting to levels not seen since the global financial crisis.” Hogue also spoke to a “long road to recovery” that will only come with an improvement in the economy and a sharp drop in supply.
With the region’s condo sector indefinitely stalled, there’s been increasing chatter around pivoting those projects to rental, and many developers have already taken the plunge. According to data provided to STOREYS by real estate analytics firm Urbanation, nine GTA projects that had been actively selling as condo have been converted to rental since the beginning of 2024. That translates to 1,778 individual units.
“Nine conversions is quite a lot when you look at it from a historical lens. Until recently, it was pretty rare to see new condo projects cancel and convert to rental,” says Urbanation President Shaun Hildebrand. “Before 2024, only seven did so during the previous 10 years. Today, almost every condo project struggling to sell is looking at the option to convert to rental.”
What’s more, Hildebrand says he’s aware of 66 projects that were originally planned as condo (yet to begin presales) that are moving forward as rental. “So, behind the scenes, there is a pretty big push towards rental that hasn’t surfaced yet,” he adds.
Daniels Keelesdale, Building J (Toronto)
- Developers: The Daniels Corporation, Diamond Corp, Kilmer Group
- Specs: 5 storeys, 62 units
- Status: Converted to rental in September 2024 after presales
Daniels Keelesdale, Building M (Toronto)
- Developers: The Daniels Corporation, Diamond Corp, Kilmer Group
- Specs: 5 storeys, 67 units
- Status: Converted to rental in September 2024 after presales
The Centricity Condos (Toronto)
- Developer: Graywood Developments
- Specs: 53 storeys, 594 units
- Status: Converted to rental in September 2024 after presales
The RIV (Toronto)
- Developer: Broccolini
- Specs: 34 storeys, 388 units
- Status: Converted to rental in September 2024 after presales
316 Junction Condominiums (Toronto)
- Developer: Marlin Spring Developments
- Specs: 26 storeys, 283 units
- Status: Converted to rental in December 2024 after presales
The Cliffton (Scarborough)
- Developer: Cliffside Homes
- Specs: 8 storeys, 40 units
- Status: Converted to rental in December 2024 after presales
- Developer: 95 Developments
- Specs: 15 storeys, 158 units
- Status: Converted to rental in April 2025 after presales
Kennedy Circle Condominiums (Milton)
- Developer: Gable View Homes
- Specs: 6 storeys, 148 units
- Status: Converted to rental in April 2025 after presales
The Gallery Condominiums (Toronto)
- Developer: Gattaca Developments
- Specs: 4 storeys, 38 units
- Status: Converted to rental in June 2025 after presales
Condo projects moving forward as rental (have not begun presales):
- 71 Talara Drive (North York) - Tribute Communities
- 665-671 Sheppard Avenue West (North York) - Regency Property
- 5294-5306 Yonge Street/Bella Condominiums (North York) - Mirabella Development Corporation
- 685 Warden Avenue (Scarborough) - Choice Properties REIT
- 2683 Lawrence Avenue East (Scarborough) - Zelinka Priamo
- 1266 Queen Street West (Toronto) - Carterra
- 29-39 Pleasant Boulevard/The Notable (Toronto) - Greybrook Developments, KingSett Capital
- 4853 Thomas Alton Boulevard (Burlington) - Adi Development Group
- 1684-1702 Queen Street East/The Beach House (Toronto) - SUD Group
*information provided by Urbanation
Partner at The Daniels Corporation Don Pugh says that the choice to pivot two buildings in the 12-acre Daniels Keelesdale master plan to rental was an effort to satisfy the market’s needs right now. This is a community that is already in the process of being occupied, he notes, with 400 homes already purchased.
“In the short term, we’re offering a portion of our inventory homes as rentals while remaining committed to our long-term vision for the development. This approach ensures these homes are occupied and serving the community while the market stabilizes,” says Pugh.
Meanwhile, SUD Group is in the latter camp, and has opted to move forward with their 10-storey project at 1684-1702 Queen Street East, which is not yet at the presale stage, as a rental, although it was approved as a condo in 2022.
SUD Group's Executive Vice President of Development and Construction Ron Weinstock says this is just one of half a dozen projects that will make up the company’s budding purpose-built rental portfolio operating under its new Sud Living banner — a membership program that will link SUD’s rentals across the city, allowing residents to use amenities in buildings outside of their own. The portfolio will also include the company’s 11-storey project at 1291-1311 Gerrard Street East and 243-247 Greenwood Avenue, 14-storey project at 26 Laing Street, and 15-storey project at 2010-2050 Yonge Street, among others.
SUD Group’s ‘The Beaches’ project was approved as a condo in 2022, but will move forward as a rental/sudgroup.co
“If you don't have the exact gym [you like] in your building, fine, go to three or four or five other buildings that have different offerings on exercise or health awareness,” he explains.
Weinstock emphasizes that while units in these buildings won’t come cheap, they will offer bang for buck, with access to intuitive, lifestyle-centric amenities like car sharing, children’s programming, and moving and cleaning services. His belief is that condos have left a gap in the market that upscale rental is primed to fill, and the company is taking a cue from rental they've created in the Florida, Arizona — for one, their Copper Falls project in Glendale — and other markets south of the border, where these types of models are more commonplace.
SUD is now beginning to collaborate with property management companies like FirstService and DEL Property Management to ensure that all the thought that's going into the creation of the product will be complimented by the day-to-day experience for renters down the line.
“The market is shifting. We are not the only one doing this, and all the service providers, people that will work with us, are modifying their teams and their infrastructure... to serve [rental] portfolios like ours,” says Weinstock. “We're aiming to work with the best and trying to to get the best product out there.”
Fengate's 'The Dennis' project has been strategically repositioned from condo to rental and broke ground in early-September/WZMH
Fengate Asset Management is another developer that's zeroing in on the GTA's rental space, and investing in its future promise. The company broke ground on The Dennis at 8-16 Locust Street in the Mount Dennis neighbourhood of Toronto earlier this month, and it has been “strategically repositioned from condo to rental,” according to Fengate's Managing Director of Development Alison Kimmell. It is also one of the first approved projects to break ground under the City of Toronto’s Purpose-built Rental Housing Incentives Stream.
The City's incentive, which will allow for the deferral of development charges (DCs) and the reduction of property taxes, in combination with CMHC financing being offered at the federal level helps to make projects like The Dennis viable, Kimmell says. “Fengate has four to-be-announced rental communities breaking ground this year.”
Despite the hearty enthusiasm towards rental over at Fengate and in general, Kimmell expresses that it’s not a one-and-done solution for condo providers — which is to say it’s not a pivot that every project can feasibly make. Fengate is well-versed in the logistics involved when taking a project from condo to rental, and it involves the reassessment of everything, including details like the design and finishing choices to ensure they’re particularly durable.
“Rentals experience turnover, so we review elevator capacity and common area layouts to better support frequent move-ins and move-outs,” Kimmell adds.
Beyond those aspects, Kimmell points out that rental projects tend to require more upfront investment from equity partners — “unlike condos, which generate early revenue through pre-sales deposits, rental developments are held long-term and do not benefit from immediate unit sales.” She additionally shares that Fengate has expanded its Asset Management team to ensure enough expertise is focussed on resident experience, building durability, and operational efficiency, and that they have brought in talent in rental marketing, adding another potential expense to the equation.
