Latest news with #AdrianRocca
Cision Canada
5 days ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
Fitzrovia and Beacon Launch Strategic Partnership to Support Newcomers to Canada and Fitzrovia Residents
TORONTO, July 2, 2025 /CNW/ - Fitzrovia, Canada's largest purpose-built rental developer, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Beacon, a digital-first Super App built to empower Global Canadians and newcomers before and after their arrival in Canada. All Fitzrovia residents can enjoy exclusive benefits when they sign up in minutes and use Beacon's innovative no fee Money Account with features Canadians expect from a traditional chequing account – all without setting foot in a brick-and-mortar branch. For newcomers to Canada, Beacon Money is Canada's first account that users can open, fund, and use their Beacon Money Account from their home country so they can set up their financial life before arriving in Canada. Beacon also solves challenges with its groundbreaking product for Canadians with global financial obligations: Beacon Bill Pay. Starting with India, Canadians can use their Beacon account to directly pay bills back home with Canadian dollars. Beacon will be adding more Bill Pay countries soon to serve even more Canadians and ease financial stress. Through this collaboration, Fitzrovia and Beacon aim to reduce the friction often associated with relocating to Canada—whether it's finding a place to live or navigating a new financial system. "Fitzrovia exists to raise the standard of rental living in Canada, and that starts well before someone signs a lease," said Adrian Rocca, Founder and CEO of Fitzrovia. "We're proud to support newcomers and Canadians through every stage of relocation—helping families find the right home, including spacious two- and three-bedroom suites, and making the financial side, like managing payments, as straightforward as possible. We also focus on services that make settling in easier, from on-site early childhood education and digital healthcare to community spaces that help build connections from day one." "Moving to a new country is one of the most significant decisions a person can make—and the financial challenges can be overwhelming," said Stuart Szabo, CEO and Co-Founder at Beacon. "Fitzrovia has changed the game in the Canadian rental market and Beacon is changing the game of Canadian financial services. Together we can offer compelling value to Fitzrovia residents and newcomers at a critical stage in their journey by pairing our digital financial solutions with Canada's most trusted housing provider." Beacon's offering includes: Beacon Money – A first-of-its-kind Canadian chequing-style account for your everyday needs: salary deposits, pre-authorized debits, Interac e-Transfer ®, Canadian bill pay and a Visa card, both physical and virtual, accepted anywhere in the world that accepts Visa. Beacon Bill Pay – The only tool in Canada that lets users pay bills directly in their home country using Canadian dollars, starting with India. Beacon Remit – A secure, low-cost remittance option from India to Canada. Fully Digital Experience – No in-person visits, no lengthy paperwork. Sign-up takes less than 10 minutes. This new partnership creates tangible benefits for both Fitzrovia residents and the broader Beacon community: All Beacon users will receive a $500 rent credit toward their first month's rent at any Fitzrovia community. This credit is in addition to any current promotions offered by Fitzrovia. All existing Fitzrovia residents who sign up for Beacon will receive $100 cash back on their purchases using Beacon's Visa card. Fitzrovia is dedicated to creating vibrant rental communities tailored to the needs of today's families. New Fitzrovia Collection communities—such as Sloane at Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Elm-Ledbury at Queen and Church in Toronto—prioritise family living with a focus on two- and three-bedroom suites. Residents also benefit from discounted tuition at Bloomsbury Academy, an on-site early childhood education centre, and complimentary access to digital healthcare services powered by Cleveland Clinic Canada. About Fitzrovia Fitzrovia is Canada's largest developer of purpose-built rentals with over 9,000 units completed, acquired or under development in Toronto and Montréal. We deliver high quality rental supply to the housing market across the affordability spectrum, including our flagship Fitzrovia Collection communities, Maddox modern vintage communities, Waverley premier student accommodations and Loxley, redefined and elevated newly built communities. We distinguish ourselves through our vertically integrated operating model where we own and manage the full process from land acquisition through to design, construction, leasing and award-winning property and asset management. We put our residents first and relentlessly innovate to exceed their expectations with world-class hospitality, amenities, and customer service. Our vibrant rental communities inspire and connect our residents while delivering long-term cash flow and capital appreciation for our investment partners. As a proud Canadian company, we are consistently recognized as one of the Best Places to Work by The National Apartment Association. The rental revolution is now. Visit and follow @FitzroviaLife on Instagram. About Beacon Beacon is a purpose-built financial solution to help Global Canadians settle with ease and build their future with confidence. Based in Toronto and Montreal, Beacon was founded in 2023 by Stuart Szabo and Aditya Mhatre. The organization is on a mission to simplify the path to a new life in Canada by delivering resources, guides and financial products through its Super App to ensure Global Canadians have all the tools needed to build their brightest possible future. To learn more, visit
Vancouver Sun
26-06-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Developer makes his pitch: Renting our way out of the Canadian housing crisis
Canada needs 3.5 million more homes in the next five years for our fast-growing population, and one prominent developer sees a solution: purpose-built rental housing. 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. 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. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Fitzrovia says it is the only Canadian developer that manages and operates the full process in-house, from development, construction to asset and property management, leading to more efficient delivery. 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. Rocca spoke to Dave Gordon for the National Post: What inspired you to found Fitzrovia, and why choose purpose built rentals? 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. 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. Why do you believe purpose built rental rather than condos is the solution? We're missing large parts of the demographic in the market that are active renters, that have been alienated from sale housing, like young families and downsizers. We have made a big call as a business to build lots of two and three bedroom units that are generally 20 per cent larger than what's being delivered in the condo market. We create a social infrastructure in these buildings that deals with the new immigrants that are moving into the city with social programming. We have our own school … We also have a healthcare partnership with Cleveland Clinic for new immigrants living in our building. So if any of our residents are feeling sick, they come down to the Cleveland Clinic room. So those are the types of social programs that are really important that the condo markets aren't doing. What are the biggest obstacles to meeting building targets? A lot of it relates to financial incentives. The economic model is under a lot of stress. New starts, depending on the data, are down 50 to 90 per cent. There's not many projects that are ever going to hit the presale threshold of 70 per cent or 80 per cent that's required to get construction financing. Interest rates have really hurt that. Price per square foot dropped by 30 per cent in a year and a half. That's going to crush your margins. It's got to be made up by the government stepping in, and waiving development charges and waiving property tax for 20 years. We've had great engagement with all three levels of government, but we need to turn that engagement to proper policy. When immigration and demand is growing, we're going to have a catastrophe of a housing crisis in three to four years. You can't just turn on the switch, and get new supply coming on the market. Takes four years to put a high rise project into the market, and then get it fully delivered, get it designed, get it approved, pull your permits, and then construct it. If you're fast, it's four years. So it's going to create an extremely tight rental market, which is not good for the end consumer. What kind of specific policy reforms would have the most immediate impact? About 30 per cent of our total development cost to build is municipal fees, development charges, government levies. So development charges are used to fund infrastructure. So as you're building, the city would need the infrastructure to support that housing, which is all fair, very important. The problem is, it's a very archaic form of funding, because that's ultimately passed on to the developer, who's passing it on to the end consumer. In the U.S., they have what's called infrastructure bonds that could get issued, or municipal bonds, to fund out that infrastructure. So you're basically taking 15 per cent cost of financing, which is what the developer needs to earn, because it's very risky to develop high rise rental, and you're replacing that with a 4 per cent cost of debt through these infrastructure bonds. It's a very effective tool. It also brings other forms of capital into the market. We can't do it off pure government funding. We need to partner up with the private sector, and get all forms of funding to the table. Not just institutional capital; it's retail capital, it's foreign capital. What impact do American tariffs have on your project? The tariffs, when we've done our analysis, add about three and a half percent of our costs. Not all developers in Canada, especially around rental housing, are actually owned by Canadians. So we have a firm commitment to support, wherever possible, Canadian suppliers. Could be brick suppliers, brick manufacturers, that could be HVAC solutions, that could be glass, that could be elevator supply, you name it. In some cases, it's more expensive, even with the tariffs, or there's a difference in quality level. So we are actively working with a number of our suppliers, to equalize some of those items, whether it's quality or price. With purpose built rentals, how does Canada win? Canada wins by creating as much new housing as possible, but the right type of quality housing. We want to provide rental housing for the masses, not just for students or young professionals, that are living in a small condo size apartments downtown. It's actually, in a lot of cases, a smart financial decision to rent, and keep the flexibility of being able to live wherever you want to live, and not be saddled by a large mortgage. This interview has been edited for brevity. This is the latest in a National Post series on How Canada Wins. Read earlier instalments here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Edmonton Journal
26-06-2025
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Developer makes his pitch: Renting our way out of the Canadian housing crisis
Article content Canada needs 3.5 million more homes in the next five years for our fast-growing population, and one prominent developer sees a solution: purpose-built rental housing. 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. Article content 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. Fitzrovia says it is the only Canadian developer that manages and operates the full process in-house, from development, construction to asset and property management, leading to more efficient delivery. 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. Rocca spoke to Dave Gordon for the National Post: Article content What inspired you to found Fitzrovia, and why choose purpose built rentals? 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. 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. Why do you believe purpose built rental rather than condos is the solution? We're missing large parts of the demographic in the market that are active renters, that have been alienated from sale housing, like young families and downsizers. Article content We have made a big call as a business to build lots of two and three bedroom units that are generally 20 per cent larger than what's being delivered in the condo market. We create a social infrastructure in these buildings that deals with the new immigrants that are moving into the city with social programming. We have our own school … We also have a healthcare partnership with Cleveland Clinic for new immigrants living in our building. So if any of our residents are feeling sick, they come down to the Cleveland Clinic room. So those are the types of social programs that are really important that the condo markets aren't doing. What are the biggest obstacles to meeting building targets? A lot of it relates to financial incentives. The economic model is under a lot of stress. New starts, depending on the data, are down 50 to 90 per cent. There's not many projects that are ever going to hit the presale threshold of 70 per cent or 80 per cent that's required to get construction financing. Interest rates have really hurt that. Article content Price per square foot dropped by 30 per cent in a year and a half. That's going to crush your margins. It's got to be made up by the government stepping in, and waiving development charges and waiving property tax for 20 years. We've had great engagement with all three levels of government, but we need to turn that engagement to proper policy. When immigration and demand is growing, we're going to have a catastrophe of a housing crisis in three to four years. You can't just turn on the switch, and get new supply coming on the market. Takes four years to put a high rise project into the market, and then get it fully delivered, get it designed, get it approved, pull your permits, and then construct it. If you're fast, it's four years. So it's going to create an extremely tight rental market, which is not good for the end consumer. What kind of specific policy reforms would have the most immediate impact? Article content About 30 per cent of our total development cost to build is municipal fees, development charges, government levies. So development charges are used to fund infrastructure. So as you're building, the city would need the infrastructure to support that housing, which is all fair, very important. The problem is, it's a very archaic form of funding, because that's ultimately passed on to the developer, who's passing it on to the end consumer. In the U.S., they have what's called infrastructure bonds that could get issued, or municipal bonds, to fund out that infrastructure. So you're basically taking 15 per cent cost of financing, which is what the developer needs to earn, because it's very risky to develop high rise rental, and you're replacing that with a 4 per cent cost of debt through these infrastructure bonds. It's a very effective tool. It also brings other forms of capital into the market. Article content We can't do it off pure government funding. We need to partner up with the private sector, and get all forms of funding to the table. Not just institutional capital; it's retail capital, it's foreign capital. What impact do American tariffs have on your project? The tariffs, when we've done our analysis, add about three and a half percent of our costs. Not all developers in Canada, especially around rental housing, are actually owned by Canadians. So we have a firm commitment to support, wherever possible, Canadian suppliers. Could be brick suppliers, brick manufacturers, that could be HVAC solutions, that could be glass, that could be elevator supply, you name it. In some cases, it's more expensive, even with the tariffs, or there's a difference in quality level. So we are actively working with a number of our suppliers, to equalize some of those items, whether it's quality or price. Article content Latest National Stories
National Post
26-06-2025
- Business
- National Post
Developer makes his pitch: Renting our way out of the Canadian housing crisis
Canada needs 3.5 million more homes in the next five years for our fast-growing population, and one prominent developer sees a solution: purpose-built rental housing. Article content 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. Article content Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content 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.
Toronto Star
04-06-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
Rental developers are offering a new perk for Toronto tenants — private health care
It's always a perk having a pool, gym or parking space in your apartment building. But how about free virtual health-care services? Now, residents in Toronto have access to that niche offering in select rental buildings. Toronto purpose-built rental developer Fitzrovia has partnered with Cleveland Clinic Canada exclusively for 10 years to offer its virtual care services in three of their Toronto buildings — downtown's Elm-Ledbury and Waverley, and Parker in midtown — with a fourth building, Sloane, near Yorkdale mall, coming this fall. 'We help provide that essential service and have partnered with a strong health-care provider so that our residents don't have to go to a walk-in clinic ever again,' said Adrian Rocca, CEO of Fitzrovia. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The intersection of housing and health care is an emerging trend in the rental market. There's already been an expansion of companies offering privatized virtual-only health care services in Ontario workplaces, with more employers offering them to workers. But now developers are partnering with private health-care companies to offer these services as a perk to thousands of GTA tenants. Developers say these health-care services improve resident satisfaction, attract new tenants, and help newcomers navigate the health-care system. They also offer a competitive edge, especially as the rental market faces downward price pressures and rising vacancies. But further expansion of private virtual-only health care into the rental space doesn't address the root of Canada's family doctor shortage, a health-care professional warns, and could detract from finding real solutions in the province's public health system. 'It's important to recognize the crisis in primary care,' said Dr. Danyaal Raza, past chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, adding that more than two million Ontarians don't have access to a family doctor. 'People are desperate for care. So the question is what do we do about that? And how do we get people good care?' Developers and private health-care providers partner up Fitzrovia isn't the only developer dabbling in the health care space. For several years, Hazelview Properties has partnered with Maple, a Canadian virtual health-care company, to expand access to essential services for its residents across the country. In the GTA, Maple is available to seven properties — with the program expanding to another building in midtown Toronto this month. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Real Estate Nearly half of Canadian low- and moderate-income renters surveyed lack air conditioning National tenant union ACORN Canada is calling for national standards on cooling access and heat A few years ago, Hazelview formalized its social impact strategy and 'engaged with residents on what their socioeconomic needs were, and found that health and wellness was a priority,' said managing partner Colleen Krempulec, head of sustainability and brand. 'As a housing provider we asked ourselves, what more can we do?' Tenants must sign up to connect with health-care professionals. Residents access services through the Maple platform on a mobile device or computer and are paired with a health-care professional in minutes, Krempulec said. At Fitzrovia, residents also sign up for the service and have access to nurses who can diagnose up to 120 common ailments. Residents can access the virtual care appointment through their own personal devices or in the 'care room' in their building, which has diagnostic tools such as a blood pressure machine and a medical exam kit that can remotely review heart rate and temperature. To date, 30 per cent of Fitzrovia's residents have signed up for the health-care services, Rocca said. Rocca emphasized the service especially helps new immigrants, who typically rent when first moving to Canada and often struggle to access a family doctor. 'We want to do things right and commit to our civic duty as a long-term owner of the building,' Rocca said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW From developers to insurers At both Fitzrovia and Hazelview, tenants do not pay out of pocket nor is it included in their rent. Instead, the developers almost act like a private insurer, covering the virtual appointment costs for residents — or in Hazelview's case, up to a limited number of free appointments. For Hazelview tenants, depending on the program they have access to, they have anywhere from two to six free sessions with a health-care professional covered per year, Krempulec said. Once a resident has used all sessions available in their plan, they can access care through Maple at their own cost, directly via the platform, a Hazelview spokesperson added. At Fitzrovia, Rocca said the cost is covered by Fitzrovia. Joanne Kearney, spokesperson for Fitzrovia, said that just as employers play a vital role in expanding access through health benefits plans Fitzrovia believes it can contribute to the well-being of their communities in a similar fashion. Around 30 to 60 per cent of Fitzrovia residents are newcomers to Canada and are subject to the mandatory three-month waiting period before qualifying for OHIP coverage, she said. 'This is before even starting the search for a family doctor, which can take several months to many years. Other residents, such as international students, may not be eligible for OHIP at all,' she said in a written statement. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Expanding private health-care comes at a cost The Canada Health Act prohibits people paying for medically necessary care delivered by a doctor or in a hospital. That leaves many areas open for private payment — such as paying a nurse practitioner for primary care — that have allowed private virtual health clinics to grow, with people signing up on their own or companies acting like private insurers. Real Estate 'Financial landlords' more aggressive on raising Toronto rents than other landlords, study finds Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), asset managers and private equity firms raised rents Private virtual-only walk-in clinics are growing rapidly as they're less expensive to operate with minimal overhead costs, said Raza, who's also a family physician at St. Michael's Hospital. There's a risk that virtual-only privatized services are drawing family doctors, nurse practitioners and other professionals away from publicly funded, in-person care that 'needs to be the backbone of our system,' he added. Having publicly funded primary care teams in all communities across the province is where investment and focus should be, he said. That means people are never more than a 15-to-20-minute journey from a health-care clinic with physicians, nurses and specialists they can access with ease. Raza said in his practice he uses a combination of in-person and virtual care, but when people use virtual-only care it can lead to higher rates of emergency department use. 'Primary care in Ontario is at a crossroad,' he said. 'We don't want to blame individuals (such as tenants) for doing what they can to get care. However, we do need to hold organizations and decision-makers accountable to make sure at the system level we make the right decisions, not the wrong ones.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Krempulec said Hazelview's partnership with Maple is not politically motivated. 'We absolutely believe in Canada's universal public health-care system,' she said. 'Offering our residents virtual care through Maple is not about undermining that principal. It's a complementary option, especially helping those who face a barrier to access to the publicly funded system,' she said. Fitzrovia's Kearney said the service can be vital for some residents, given the Ontario public system is scaling back its support for virtual care. Real Estate Ford government scrapped Toronto affordable housing requirements after pushback from three REITs, documents show Two of the REITs suggested the quotas for converted employment lands could result in no new In 2022, a new agreement in Ontario between doctors and the province came into effect that adjusted the fee codes for virtual care, with the aim of reducing the use of specific 'walk-in' virtual visits and to encourage virtual care in conjunction with in-person care. 'For individuals with physical disabilities or those facing mobility challenges, this is a serious setback. On-demand virtual care addresses some inequities by making access to care easier for those who have difficulty getting to a clinic, or difficulty finding a brick-and-mortar walk-in clinic,' Kearney said.
