Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) is sounding the alarm about Ontario’s rental market, which it says is leaving families, students, and seniors struggling to find safe, affordable housing.
A new report from OREA warns that without urgent reforms, the provincial rental system will continue to fail both tenants and landlords.
In A Fair Rental Market for a Stronger Ontario, OREA lays out 20 “action-ready” recommendations aimed at creating a more balanced, inclusive rental system. The report calls on the provincial government to modernize outdated laws, fix the dysfunctional Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), and expand supply to ease mounting pressures.
Key proposals include:
- Overhauling the Residential Tenancies Act (2006) to reflect today’s market and improve affordability.
- Restoring in-person hearings at the LTB while keeping a virtual option.
- Expanding mediation services to reduce backlogs, using B.C.’s tenancy model as a guide.
- Mandating equal treatment under the Condominium Act (1998) to support diverse families.
- Offering tax incentives to responsible small landlords who create new rental units.
“Ontario needs a rental market that is fair, efficient, and keeps the door to homeownership open to everyone who wants to achieve that dream,” said OREA president Cathy Polan. “That means we need more accessible and affordable supply across the housing spectrum so families of every size can find a great place to thrive. Improving Ontario’s rental landscape to make housing more affordable is a key step towards that goal.”
According to a July 2025 survey by Abacus Data, 56 per cent of Ontarians say the rental market is unbalanced. Top concerns include high rental costs (82 per cent), limited availability (62 per cent), and poor unit conditions (49 per cent). Only 32 per cent are satisfied with dispute resolution at the LTB.
“As both a landlord and father of renters, I know a fair, balanced rental market is key to housing affordability across the spectrum, and the policy solutions Ontario Realtors put forward today will do just that,” said OREA CEO Luigi Favaro.
OREA stresses that these reforms would strengthen tenant protections, support responsible landlords, and ultimately stabilize Ontario’s housing market.
The recommendations are fine but are only a start and are framed in “government speak” rather than truly practical recommendations. In my opinion and based on 40 years of rental experience, the following recommendations would really go to address the rental problem:
1. Ensure that LTB hearings are held within 20 days of rent not being paid.
2. Hire more sheriffs to enforce evictions.
3. Allow landlords to garnish government payments and tax refunds to collect outstanding rent and cost orders once an order has been obtained.
4. Show rental history and LTB files on credit reports.
This will ensure that landlords are not providing free social housing because the government does not put structures in place to assist with the collection and enforcement of rent.
Absolutely great first start recommendations.
Rental rates should be covering the landlord mortgage and property taxes if the whole home is rented. There SHOULD NOT be a profit in renting a home. Why? Because homeownership is about owning a home and living in it NOT profiting. This is the reason why house prices have skyrocketed as most of the real estate agents are buying 70% of the market.
Did it ever occur to you that the real estate industry is a main cause of inflated house and rental properties. Stacking offers to get a higher price the constant breaking of ethics runs rampant in the industry. The true crisis is the manipulation of housing value by the real estate industry the consumers are not getting value just overpriced real estate. It’s not what the market will bare when it’s manipulated by real estate industry. Why doesn’t OREA create a new rule that only allows a real estate agent to only represent one side of a sale either a buyers side or the listing side but not both, unfortunately the industry is more interested in protecting its members not the public.
You have it the other way around. In over a decade there hasn’t been profit from rent at least not in areas like GTA. The profits are from selling only. In order to make profit property prices have to be very high which in turn makes high rents because mortgage is very high. 20-30 years ago profits from rent was between 8-10% today it’s under 3-4% on overage and 20-30 years ago rent was affordable.
I agree with Joe, it’s a great start. Make it a level playing field that protects both parties. Landlords feel that the laws have to change, making it favorable to Tenants, who are irresponsible with others’ property.
Nothing is broken, you guys simply don’t understand the concept of private properties , landlords owe you nothing , high rents are because of high taxation, your representatives are the offenders here , not I. And the more taxes you put on me to finance “affordable housing” the more my rentals go up.
Personally I’m finding that discrimination is a key problem. Landlords are having agents pre approve someone just to view a listing. Meaning realtors are forcing potential tenants to disclosing personal info like credit scores, place of work, having pets before a viewing. The information shouldn’t be asked for unless the tenants want to put an offer in. Also tenants should be able to have the same information from a landlord. In business you know who you are signing a contract with.. it should be the same when signing a contract for an offer.