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Student Rentals - zoning question...

CaesarPua

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Hi everyone,

I understand from talking to a few REIN members that getting mortgages for student rentals are getting more difficult, however, I just finished talking to my mortgage banker at RBC and he mentioned they still do mortgages for student rentals.


He did mention to me though:

If the property is located in an area zoned as student rentals, then I would have to put a larger deposit down. However, if it`s zoned as residential, then I only need to put down 20%. For example, he mentioned a lot of the homes around University of Waterloo are zoned as student rentals, so a larger deposit would be required.

Can anyone clarify this for me? Has anyone else encountered the same issues with "zoning"? Is there a way for me to determine the zoning for a particular area I`m looking at?

I`m particularly interested in the Hamilton university area (e.g. McMaster)

Thanks for your comments and time!

Caesar
 

housingrental

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There is no student housing zoning in Waterloo
There is a minimum distance separation between where you can put NEW lodging house licenses in certain zonings (more than 3 unrelated renters in a unit)
I can only guess that the broker is suggesting that if you purchase a rental property that doesn`t currently have students, and then change it to student renters you`ll require a lower down payment.
Ie purchasing a house with a lodging license might be harder to finance.
You can find a zoning map at the website of the city.
 

BrianPersaud

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QUOTE (housingrental @ May 13 2009, 12:04 PM) There is no student housing zoning in Waterloo
There is a minimum distance separation between where you can put NEW lodging house licenses in certain zonings (more than 3 unrelated renters in a unit)
I can only guess that the broker is suggesting that if you purchase a rental property that doesn`t currently have students, and then change it to student renters you`ll require a lower down payment.
Ie purchasing a house with a lodging license might be harder to finance.
You can find a zoning map at the website of the city.

In Toronto student housing is looked at hear no evil see no evil. Unless you get complaints or you have major garbage issues they won`t shut you down. There are only a few building inspectors in Toronto and they are so overworked with existing complaints.

I have heard of stories in Brampton that City has called people on advertisements.

By the way, as anyone see the new housing at York University...they are going for over $600k for a 1600 sq townhouse 80% have to be rooming houses. I`ve seen some that have been converted into a 13 room house. It`s crazy..those guys are going to get booked sooner or later

I`ll post my research on York U student housing soon
 

housingrental

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Brian - Have you looked into picking up some 150k-450k apartments, townhouses, houses from the 60`s a little south of York ? Can do decent rent to income there but not ideal neighborhood.
 

BrianPersaud

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QUOTE (housingrental @ May 13 2009, 03:40 PM) Brian - Have you looked into picking up some 150k-450k apartments, townhouses, houses from the 60`s a little south of York ? Can do decent rent to income there but not ideal neighborhood.

Jane/Finch is really not that bad. It`s just the apartment buildings, once you go the interior streets you see a lot of homes with a lot of pride of ownership. The downside for the properties you`re talking about is the demand by students drops off huge once you`re on the Finch side of Murray Ross Parkway = lower rents.

I did see a condo built in the 60`s and the common areas where rough. Even with a $100k price tag i was thinking the maint would be through the roof.
 

housingrental

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A lot of the detached houses in surrounding streets are kept up
But no some of the interior streets aren`t the greatest either.. especially some of the townhouse complex`s

Some of those condo`s chopped up and rented to students getting good $$ but the building was like $600/month condo fees which took to big of a chunk of revenue to make sense


QUOTE (BrianPersaud @ May 14 2009, 10:38 PM) Jane/Finch is really not that bad. It`s just the apartment buildings, once you go the interior streets you see a lot of homes with a lot of pride of ownership. The downside for the properties you`re talking about is the demand by students drops off huge once you`re on the Finch side of Murray Ross Parkway = lower rents.

I did see a condo built in the 60`s and the common areas where rough. Even with a $100k price tag i was thinking the maint would be through the roof.
 

BrianPersaud

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QUOTE (housingrental @ May 15 2009, 12:05 PM) A lot of the detached houses in surrounding streets are kept up
But no some of the interior streets aren`t the greatest either.. especially some of the townhouse complex`s

Some of those condo`s chopped up and rented to students getting good $ but the building was like $600/month condo fees which took to big of a chunk of revenue to make sense

Wow $600/mth...think of the mortgage you could get for that.
 
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