As "small landlords " with a total of three tenants living in our house along with my Wife and I, we are allowed to increase the rent in 2024 by two and a half percent, under the Ontario Provincial Government's Landlord and Tennant guidelines. The basement couple currently pay $1455 a month, while the second floor girl pays $ 1356 a month. WE have been providing FREE internet, and cable TV services in the past, but that is going to have to change, as the monthly costs have risen to over $200 a month for that, alone. We will give them the legal 90 day notice with the new monthly rent costs set out on it. We LIKE our tenants, and they like us, but we have to increase the rents so that we are not losing money.
A part of our costs to own the house are .....Property taxes to the city of Toronto ( about $5700 a year ) fire and liability insurance on the building ( over $4000 a year ) monthly utilities of around $650, monthly waste removal costs of about $330 a month, and the usual costs of maintaining 2 sets of appliances, and the washer and dryer that the tenants use for free. The central air conditioning, the natural gas furnace, the water heater, and the toilets are all annual costs that we have to shoulder as the building owners. This is a detached, 2 story brick house, with a modern basement apartment, and a modern fully equipped second floor apartment upstairs, both of which have their own private entrances. We live on the main floor of the house, which was built in 1905, and which we bought in 2003. With a total annual cost of about $22,000 and rental income of $33,732, we are left with an annual rental income of just over a thousand a month on a house that is valued at more than one million dollars in the Toronto real estate market. We get regular offers from real estate buyers offering us that price, in cash, if we will sell the property.
My point ? Owning rental properties, even under strictly controlled Government policies, is not a way to get rich. JimB.
