Why small rental buildings, and why now.
The shortage is a supply problem, and it is concentrated in Ontario
Canada needs to build far more housing than it currently does. CMHC's supply-gap analysis, updated in 2025, puts the additional homes required over the coming decade to restore affordability in the millions, with Ontario carrying the largest share of the gap.
Low-rise neighbourhoods cover most of Toronto's land. They are the largest untapped source of new rental supply in the city, and until recently they were closed to it.
Three changes, now aligned
Zoning reform
Multiplexes of up to four units are permitted as-of-right across Toronto, and sixplexes in a growing number of wards. The rezoning risk and delay that made small sites uneconomic has been removed for the product Metrosuite builds.
CMHC MLI Select
Purpose-built rental that meets affordability, energy-efficiency and accessibility criteria can qualify for insured financing of up to 95% of cost with amortisation of up to 50 years, subject to program criteria in force at the time of application. The intended effect is a material reduction in the equity a project needs, and the potential to recover equity at refinancing, subject to program terms and appraisal at the time.
Modular delivery
Factory construction compresses build time and narrows cost variance relative to site-built construction, and it is less exposed to the shortage of skilled trades that constrains conventional supply.
Program terms as published by CMHC as of September 2026; they change, and the partnership's offering documents state the terms applied for.
A module lifted over the existing house into the rear yard, Peterborough. Windows, cladding, wiring and plumbing are already in.The product
We build family-sized two- and three-bedroom homes in established neighbourhoods. Demand for that product is structural, tenancies are longer, and a lower cost per square foot than new high-rise supply lets households share and split space in ways a one-bedroom tower unit does not allow.
Every building is designed to the MLI Select energy tier from the first drawing, so that the financing the thesis depends on is designed in rather than applied for afterwards.
The cost position
Integration is the advantage. Design, factory relationships and site delivery sit under one roof, which lets Metrosuite deliver at a cost below conventional site-built construction of the same product, and with narrower variance. Each completed building adds to the procurement volume, the manufacturer relationships and the delivery playbook that the next building runs on.
Sell or hold
A completed, stabilised, MLI Select-financed building is a marketable asset with a long-amortisation insured mortgage in place. The partnership is not committed in advance to holding it or selling it. When a stabilised building would fetch more from a buyer than it is worth to the partnership as income, it is sold; when the reverse is true, it is held. The decision is made building by building, on current market evidence, within the partnership's term.
Site selection
Sites are single-family lots that carry a fourplex and a garden suite as-of-right, in neighbourhoods with transit, schools and established rental demand. Lots are bought in the ordinary residential resale market, and sites are clustered geographically so that design, procurement and craning logistics are shared across buildings.