Developer makes his pitch: Renting our way out of the Canadian housing crisis
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Fitzrovia CEO Adrian Rocca, who has 20 years of real estate experience and has led over $20 billion in transactions across Canada, U.S. and the European Union, maintains that governments need to take certain steps to incentivize more building.
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Fitzrovia has nearly 9,000 purpose-built rental suites — meaning, not condos — completed or in development in Toronto and Montreal, with 3,000 new homes on track for next year. The company says about a third of Toronto's households have the financial means to rent with them.
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Housing accounts for almost one-fifth of Canada's GDP, making it a key driver of economic growth. Facilitating investment in domestic housing is a catalyst for broader economic development, says Rocca. Each avoidable fee or delay represents lost opportunities for Canadian workers, subcontractors, and suppliers to benefit from that investment.
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I saw home ownership rates are actually quite low in Germany. 70 per cent of the households rent, versus own. When I came back, it felt like there is a negative stigma around renting, and I almost felt empowered or passionate around changing that stigma.
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I think the quality of rental housing could look vastly different if you put some TLC behind the design, the implementation, the programming, the quality of the materials. We could functionally make that product look uniquely different and bring a sense of pride of rentership, versus home ownership. It doesn't mean that you're a failure if you rent.
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