The Canadian real estate landscape has changed significantly since the early 2000s, back when buying a home was achievable for almost anyone with steady employment. Today, homeownership in markets like Vancouver or Toronto is far more challenging unless buyers are prepared to spend beyond their financial means on a down payment and the rest of their lives drowning in debt.
“Employment rates have not kept pace with the growing demand for jobs, post-pandemic,” observes John Hickey, Senior Director, Residential Asset Management and Property Management at The Daniels Corporation. “Mortgage rates have seen a sharp increase, as well as job turnover rates. Income uncertainty is more prevalent now than it has been in the past. These conditions have created affordability pressures for all age groups, but mostly for younger families and millennial professionals who are finding it challenging to transition from renting to homeownership.”
Combined with the supply shortage, affordability constraints are forcing existing renters to remain in their units longer; meanwhile, rising immigration and changing attitudes about renting are contributing to the heightened demand. Data shows that, increasingly, Canadians are choosing to live alone or with a roommate, resulting in a noticeable decline in turnover rates—and for the cohort that does want to invest in a new home, the exorbitant cost of housing isn’t making the transition easy.
Enter Daniels’ Home Investment Program (HIP), a unique program designed to help tenants create a pathway to future homeownership. Open to all residents of Daniels’ Gateway Rental Communities, tenants are invited to accumulate HIP dollars towards the purchase of a new Daniels home.
As Hickey explains it, “After renting a Daniels home for twelve months, Gateway tenants get a certificate for $6,000, which can be applied towards the purchase of any new Daniels home. If they are not quite ready to buy at that point, no problem—they can continue collecting $500 HIP Dollars per month to a maximum of $25,000.”
The program launched in 1999 when the first Gateway Rental Communities opened in the GTA. Since then, over 4,550 rental residents have been automatically enrolled, with no pressure to opt-in or commit to buying a home at any point along the way.
“Our footprint extends beyond traditional home-building,” Hickey says. “Daniels exists to build inclusive and sustainable communities to create a better future for all. We harness our influence for positive change, demonstrating that development can be a force for good through impactful partnerships with not-for-profit, government, institutional, and private-sector entities.”
Other innovative programs and services
In addition to HIP, Daniels Gateway Rental Communities offers an array of programs and services designed to meet the needs of a wide range of residents. For its high-rise tenants, Daniels offers the Amenity Activation Program, which brings residents together for cultural celebrations and art exhibits reflecting the diversity of those who live in the building.
In 2023, Daniels partnered with Kinder College Early Learning Centre to open a daycare on the ground floor of the EVOLV rental building in Toronto. Today, Hickey says the centre is recognized as having one of the best early childhood education programs in the region, known for providing “exceptional care” for children ages three months to four years.
At Uniti, Daniels recently partnered with the BlackNorth Initiative (BNI) to create an Artist in Residence Program and help remove systemic barriers faced by Black artists in accessing housing, workspaces, and economic opportunities, the program also promotes art, culture, and resident engagement.
Meanwhile, sustainability is engrained into each Gateway rental community from the earliest design stages: “Our low carbon communities reduce energy consumption and fossil fuel use, thus, futureproofing against climate change and mitigating the risk of costly retrofits or drastic energy price shocks as the market and code shift towards low-emission buildings,” Hickey says. “We also launched the Daniels Decarbonization Roadmap, an industry-first strategy to reduce whole-life carbon emissions from our real estate developments.”
For more info on HIP and other Daniels Corp. programs visit: danielsgateway.com
