How ‘financialized’ landlords may be contributing to rising rents in Canada [Video]

Khalil Alibi is facing his Goliath.

Starlight Investments is Canada’s largest landlord, with more than 54,000 units nationwide and 68,000 globally. Starlight was granted approval by Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board to raise the rent above provincial guidelines twice in the last two years. Alibi says this makes his unit no longer affordable for him. 

“They should not be allowed to get away with this. They just keep coming to take and take and take,” he said.

Alibi, who lives with his wife and three children, says the rent for his three-bedroom unit is now $1,761 per month, up from $1,472 in December 2019, the year Starlight purchased the building. One-bedroom units that have since become vacant are starting at $2,428 a month.

Alibi says he has to fight back. 

He and dozens of other tenants from his and two adjacent buildings — including 71, 75 and 79 Thorncliffe Park Drive in north Toronto — have joined forces in a rent strike …