Rentsync Blog

E35: The Advantages of Immigration on Rental Housing in Canada with David Frattini

Written by Team Rentsync | August 18, 2021 at 4:00 AM

"What we found is that basically, about 50% of these newcomers that are arriving want to be in their first rental phase within the first month of arriving in Canada." — David Frattini

In today's episode of Sync or Swim, we get together with David Frattini, the managing partner at Rentals For Newcomers, to discuss the advantages of immigration on rental demand in Canada. We hear from David about how he has been helping newcomers prepare with their transition to Canada for the past eleven years, and how RentalsforNewcomers.com provides an essential pipeline between landlords who are open to housing newcomers moving to Canada who are looking to rent. David explains why newcomers make reliable and desirable tenants and how the rental listing site is helping educate landlords on what to look for in prospective tenants. Immigration is a crucial part of the Canadian economy, it aids population growth, which in turn fuels economic growth, while newcomers are also a critical source of labor. David shares details on their fruitful partnership with Rentsync as well as some exciting developments taking place at Rentals for Newcomers. For all this and much more, tune in today!

Key points from this episode:

  • Introducing today's guest, David Frattini.
  • How Prepare for Canada, and Rentals for Newcomers have been helping immigrants for the past eleven years.
  • Why finding their first job and a place to live is critically important to newcomers.
  • How Rentals for Newcomers is preparing for an influx of approximately 1.2 million newcomers in the next four years.
  • How they are creating a pipeline between newcomers and the types of landlords who value them as tenants.
  • Why they are educating newcomers on the opportunities outside of major cities.
  • The blog is a useful source for newcomers to educate themselves on renting in Canada.
  • Why immigration is a critical part of the Canadian economy.
  • How landlords need to market their properties to people who are looking to secure a rental from abroad.
  • How virtual tours have become the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • How they educate landlords on what they can expect from newcomers as tenants.
  • How they partnered with Rentsync to be available with ad syndication.
  • David shares some of the exciting prospects and developments at his business.

Links mentioned in today's episode:

Episode Transcript

"120,000 households are being formed annually and primarily 95% are looking for permanent rental accommodation."

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:13.5] ANNOUNCER: Hello, and welcome to Sync or Swim, a weekly podcast, brought to you by Rentsync, where we take a deep dive into the PropTech, multi-family and rental housing industry. In each episode, we uncover the technologies and strategies used to help overcome operational challenges and increase the value of your multi-family investments. Let's get into our conversation today.

[0:00:37.6] NS: Welcome back to Sync or Swim. I'm your host, Nicolina Savelli and you're listening to Get Synced where I take a tactical approach to helping those in multi-family improve their marketing and advertising efforts. Today, I have David Frattini with me, who is the managing partner at Rentals for Newcomers. A rental listing site targeted towards newcomers to Canada and is now available as a rental listing connection through ad syndication with Rentsync. Welcome to the show, David.

[0:01:04.3] DF: Thanks so much Nicolina, I'm really happy to be here and speak with you and speak with your audience.

[0:01:09.7] NS: Awesome, thank you for being here. Now, before we dive into the conversation around Rentals for Newcomers and how you're helping immigrants and visitors find affordable housing across Canada. Do you mind telling us a little bit about your background and the work you've done in your career and really, how it led you to starting Rentals for Newcomers?

[0:01:28.8] DF: Absolutely. I've been in this sector of helping newcomers now for almost 15 years. Rentals for Newcomers is part of our company, Destination Canada Information Inc. We really operate as a brand called Prepare for Canada. Prepare for Canada has been around for now, almost 11 years.

Prepare for Canada was really designed to help connect newcomers with people, organizations and networks that could facilitate and make the immigration journey a lot easier and we really focus in on three areas that are really important for newcomers, that is, job finding first steps, settling first steps and financial first steps.

Within those three areas, we really try to help connect newcomers with those people, organizations and networks that are going to make those three areas smoother.

[0:02:31.2] NS: Right.

[0:02:31.9] DF: In doing this for the number of years that I've been working in this sector, we've realized that obviously, for newcomers, finding that job is really critically important. Also, finding that first place to live is critically important and it's one of the biggest pain points that newcomers have historically have faced when arriving in Canada.

[0:02:57.6] NS: Of course.

[0:02:58.2] DF: Because they don't have that job offer, they don't have a credit history that is so important for the landlords. We really try to investigate how we could create a solution to address that pai point later in the conversation.

[0:03:16.3] NS: Yeah, we'll talk about that.

[0:03:16.8] DF: More of that, really, that's how we came to being when we realized that housing was such a challenge for newcomers and we create a solution that matches landlords who really appreciate newcomers as tenants and newcomers to those people. That was really the basis for this.

[0:03:37.4] NS: Yeah, I mean, you've touched on this obviously but we'll expand on everything you kind of just went over in this conversation. Now obliviously, we'll dive into Rentals for Newcomers a little more with more than 400,000 immigrants predicted to come into Canada in the next four years. How do you see Rentals for Newcomers playing a role in the search for the right rental property?

[0:03:59.7] DF: Well, I just wanted to make a couple of points there. Firstly, when we're talking about that 400,000 number, that 400,000 number is projected on an earlier basis over the next four years. That's – over the next three years in fact, the government is projecting 1.2 million newcomers to be arriving in the country. We're talking about permanent residence here.

Really, to answer your question, what we found is that basically, about 50% of these newcomers that are arriving want to be in their first rental phase within the first month of arriving in Canada. We said, if that's the case and they're arriving and they don't have credit issue, they may not have the job offer, we know that there are landlords out there who really see the value of newcomers as tenants for a whole bunch of reasons and as I say, we'll get into this in greater detail.

There are landlords out there who see the value of newcomers as tenants and we wanted to create a two-way street for both landlords and tenants. We want to create a pipeline to this steady stream of newcomers who will be coming into the country for landlords who value these people as tenants. We want to create the most direct route for tenants, newcomer tenants to get to those landlords immediately.

It is designed to really be a two-way street and usually, beneficial for both landlords and newcomer tenants.

[0:05:39.5] NS: Perfect. Obviously, we know affordability is a major concern for many renters right now. Especially, immigrants and international students, I mean, coming in, like you said, they may not have their first jobs before renting. In your opinion, were you seeing the greatest opportunity for these types of renters to find affordable housing in Canada?

[0:06:01.6] DF: Well, I'm going to talk again about the permanent resident crew, the international students have a whole other set of needs and requirements and certainly, landlords of a certain added different expectations around international students and that permanent resident group.

[0:06:17.5] NS: Of course.

[0:06:19.0] DF: For permanent residents, what we really – historically, we've seen is that permanent residents pick the gateway cities. They're landing in major urban markets, GTA, they're landing in Vancouver, in Calgary and in Montreal, the cities that they know when they historically have thought of Canada.

[0:06:37.4] NS: Yup.

[0:06:40.5] DF: Because of the changing point system, because of the point system that it gets permanent residence end up capping. A number of other policy implementations form immigration refugee citizenship in Canada, newcomers are starting to land and consider smaller destinations and really, we really remind and try and educate newcomers on the opportunities that exist in smaller centers as well.

If they can match the labor market skills with labor market needs in smaller centers, then they're opening up the door for themselves, the possibility of finding more affordable housing and getting themselves on track or a sound financial plan for the future, which is why everyone it comes, which is a big reason why newcomers come to the country. We really want to educate newcomers that there are other opportunities outside of the gateways, that is number one. If you're focused on the gateway cities, then you should understand that there are neighborhoods that are more affordable.

That's what we really want to start to do with Rentals for Newcomers. Make sure that people understand within gateway cities where some of the most affordable neighborhoods if they should even consider it.

[0:08:03.8] NS: That's awesome, yeah. That's super important. Now, I know you have a lot of resources for renters on rentalsfornewcomers.com. Can you share some tips for those coming to Canada and thinking about renting, what kind of documents, information they can prepare beforehand so that they can streamline their renting process and get their applications considered? Is there anything that they can prepare for?

[0:08:26.5] DF: We encourage our newcomer audience to educate themselves around the rental marketplace. Obviously, it's important that they understand that with renting, there are rights and there are responsibilities and it really is a two-way street. We encourage them to understand that – first of all, the landlord tenancy act is different by province. They should understand some of the basics that are cemented in the idea of the landlord tenancy act what the rates and responsibilities are.

They should really understand as well that to represent themselves as a good potential candidate, that they understand, there's a responsibility component in the whole nature of the agreement. To that end, we say, you could really bring that to life, not through that legal agreement but for the spirit of the agreement. We want to encourage them to be better prepared if they're going to show up for a viewing and a potential conversation with the landlord.

[0:09:39.5] NS: Right.

[0:09:39.9] DF: They can prepare themselves in a number of ways. If they're landing and they don't get that job offer, you're certainly, you're not going to have Canadian credit history. There are other things that they can do to certainly get themselves considered and be memorable in the minds of the landlord or the property manager.

They come prepared with bank statements so that you can show that you brought liquidity for a period of time. Come prepared with references, even if they are from the country of, your country of origin but it really shows that you've been thinking about some of the questions that landlords are possibly going to ask. If you've got a job offer, make sure that you come with that information.

Certainly, we know if they're coming and have just recently landed and they don't have credit history here in Canada, maybe they bring along the credit history from their country of origin. These are all things that they could do. In addition to that is well, while we share tips on our site, about how to be a good tenant.

Really understanding the importance of paying one time, understanding the importance of keeping the place clean, this comes back to the responsibilities. Live up to the agreement and go beyond by being – representing yourself as the fact that you can truly be a good, respectful, responsible tenant. That's what we, you know, really want newcomers to understand.

[0:11:11.9] NS: Sound tips and some tips that renters who aren't newcomers should abide by more often I think too. My brother was my renter for some time and he could have taken a lesson from Rentals for Newcomers blog, I think.

[0:11:28.7] DF: No, I'd encourage, in fact, all of – anyone who is listening, please visit our site and you can see both of our sites, Rentals for Newcomers and Prepare for Canada. You can see the amount of work that we've put in to try to help educate newcomers on getting ready for the rental market here in Canada. I'd love to hear from landlords themselves. This is a work in progress. For any of you who are – 

[0:11:53.2] NS: Many missing pieces, yeah.

[0:11:54.4] DF: Let us know, absolutely.

[0:11:56.0] NS: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, I'd like to switch gears now and talk about the landlord side of things a bit more. Obviously, we've touched on this a bit but over the last year, there has been a shift in demand from primary to secondary markets and vacancy rates have risen in major metros.

However, as of July 6th, the backlog of permanent resident, applications have skyrocketed by 70% to over 375,000. The number of applications for temporary residence is sitting over 700,000 cases. Once travel entry reopens, what do you think that means for rental demand in major cities like you said, gateway cities? How can they prepare for that kind of influx of newcomers?

[0:12:39.8] DF: Well, you know, I wish, one, I had a crystal ball. When this – the border restrictions are going to be eased but let's assume that we will head back to somewhere near a new normal and we're going to, the government is intent on getting these numbers in. The government is and I think this is regardless of any of the major parties, all of the parties, political parties maintain the same philosophy, but immigration is critical to the Canadian economy.

It's critical for three big reasons, it helps population growth which is critical for our economic growth and newcomers are a critical source of our labor market.

[0:13:34.7] NS: Yes.

[0:13:34.8] DF: For those three reasons, I think that we are going to continue to see a sustained living on part of the government, to bringing in big numbers of permanent residents into the country. You know, the government recognizes as well that we've got to disperse these people across the country. Newcomers themselves are getting better at understanding as we're trying to work with to educate them, that there are opportunities that exist beyond the gateway cities. You know, currently, things haven't changed. Roughly 70, 75% of newcomers land in gateway cities.

[0:14:14.6] NS: Right.

[0:14:16.3] DF: That number I believe will go down as people realize that there are some great opportunities. For example, we do webinars regularly with the city of Fredrickson is very aggressive. Absolutely, they're very aggressive in trying to attract newcomers to the city. One of their big tools in their attraction strategy is affordable housing.

People in smaller centers can attract newcomers because of affordable housing. Here in the audience out there listening, please don't think that Rentals for Newcomers is simply a solution for newcomers that are landing in gateway cities.

We'd love you in our listings included as well because people are going to those smaller centers because of job opportunities and really, because of affordable housing as well. Yes, people are going to continue to land in those major markets, we're going to try and find out those landlords who have affordable housing and maybe going out further extended areas outside of the GPA proper, as an example. Soon we're working to highlight opportunities within major markets and promote alternatives to major product.

[0:15:28.1] NS: Right, it's really a branding positioning for these smaller cities to kind of say, the landlords in those cities to say, "Hey, this is a great place to live, we have more affordable housing, we've got more space." It's all the things that the people who are local from Toronto already knew and decided to leave recently and say, "Oh, okay, I'm going to go to the smaller cities, I can work remotely" and newcomers may not be as aware but I think it's so important that there's more education around that because those opportunities do exist.

[0:16:01.1] DF: Absolutely.

[0:16:02.1] NS: That's great. Now, obviously, when you're looking for a property that you can't see in person, there's a lot of unknowns. How can landlords and property managers ensure their listings are including the right information to attract newcomers who maybe is searching from abroad and aren't able to see in person?

[0:16:21.8] DF: Well, for newcomers, what's really important is they want to figure out what are the amenities around this area? Down the road, we're going to be adding in some overlays into our site that talk about proximity to grocery stores, proximity to schools, as well as proximity to transportation systems.

These are really, there are a number of other criteria, that newcomers will look at. Those are really some important aspects. One other thing that is really important is obviously, the proximity to sort of the labor market opportunities.

[0:17:04.5] NS: Yes.

[0:17:05.2] DF: Is my place going to be close to where my job is now? If you've just landed and finding your first place as a priority, you're not necessarily going to go where that first job is going to be but if you're on a sound transportation, solid transportation system. At least now that you get an opportunity going out for parties, you have the opportunity to get the design.

Those are things that are really important for newcomers. Proximity to groceries, the schooling system in the neighborhood, transportation system and proximity to job market opportunities. Those are things that landlords can talk about within their description of their units. We're going to be adding those in as overlays into our mapping system as well. That's one thing and I believe a true Rentsync that there is the opportunity for video viewing as well.

[0:18:00.4] NS: Yes, virtual tours are, yeah, you can turn on your virtual tours. Obviously that's a huge component of renting and not seeing in person. I know people are buying not in person anymore based on virtual tours. Renting is no different, right?

[0:18:15.0] DF: Exactly, exactly.

[0:18:16.2] NS: Yeah, I mean, we've all had to – anyone renting during COVID is pretty much had to adjust to that anyway, the experience doesn't even matter if you're 10 kilometers away or 500,000 kilometers away, it's almost the same right now.

[0:18:30.5] DF: Exactly.

[0:18:31.8] NS: Now, in your opinion, is there a sweet spot for rent rates for people coming into the country? This might be interesting, I'm asking because this may influence where demand surges, once borders kind of open up and travel opens up, just to get a sense of where that sweet spot is and where those cities that currently have those rent rates are.

[SPONSOR MESSAGE]

[0:18:56.4] ANNOUNCER: Interested in being a guest on Sync or Swim or have a really great idea for an episode? Email us at podcast@rentsync.com.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]

[0:19:05.9] DF: Right, well it's a challenge I think for newcomers to fully grapple with housing prices here in Canada, so you're getting them to understand how expensive housing is, is a really big challenge versus their expectations. We've seen some surprises in what expectations are versus reality and I'm totally fine to educate people in somewhere also and then trying to educate people who is coming back to the labor market. 

If you need to understand what your job salary range is going to be based on your experience and try and figure out what your budget is going to look like based on an anticipated salary range, then we know how much you're going to be paying for housing or what you can afford for housing based on an anticipated salary range, then you've got either start thinking about, "Okay, is this affordable in some of those gateways at east or are there other opportunities outside." 

You know, is there a sweet spot? Yeah. Sadly, there is an expectation that housing is going to be a lot less than what it really is, you know, maybe in the marketplace, so one, we're working to educate newcomers about that and two, we've got to be mindful. A lot of people arrive and within six months or less have landed great paying jobs. 

Let's remind ourselves and I will come back to this because this is a question at any conversation that I really want to address for landlords particularly, understanding who this newcomer is but you know, many people land jobs really quickly because they're being that star in case system matching people and inviting people who arrive based on their labor market skills. These people are arriving and landing good paying jobs in a short period of time but they do come with money. 

You know, a recent financial institution survey has shown that on average they are coming with nearly $50,000 in the bank. 

[0:21:20.8] NS: Wow. 

[0:21:21.6] DF: That's on average, so they got money to sustain themselves for a period of time but they want to be, back to your question is there a sweet spot even if they have that money? They are budget conscious because they want to protect themselves. 

[0:21:38.0] NS: Of course, yes. Given that, are there any specific promotions that you'll find most popular with newcomers like first month is free because they are still looking for that landing that job or are those kind of the promotions that they would be looking at if landlords were to consider a promotion to fill vacancies for newcomers? 

[0:21:58.0] DF: Well, I suspect that you know, as the boarder restrictions ease and your numbers start increasing, arrival numbers start increasing, we're probably going to see the diminishment of promotional offers and you know, I really believe that those number are going to arrive to this. You know, we earlier were talking about the 400,000 newcomers that are coming into the country and we did a great interview with Bob Dhillon and I'm sure many in your audience know of the importance of Bob Dhillon in this sector. 

[0:22:43.6] NS: Yes. 

[0:22:44.3] DF: He's focused on affordable housing accommodation. That's where Mainstreet Equity really has built themselves, they have done a phenomenal job. He says do the math. 400,000 newcomers arriving every year, not everyone is going to be looking for a rental property but a bunch of them are and when he says do the math, I can help landlords do that math. Here's what that math is, 400,000 newcomers are arriving, 60% of that permanent resident group are from the economic class. 

That's who probably landlords really want to focus in on, those are people coming in with job offers, are labor market skills that were invited because of their occupation and education backgrounds. 60% of that 400,000 is 240,000 people. Now, let's say on average that household is 1.90, let's round it to two people. That is 240 divided by two, 120,000 households being formed annually and their primarily 95% are looking for permanent rental apartment they share. There basically, we are talking about 10,000, demand for 10,000 units on a per month basis. 

[0:24:04.6] NS: Wow.

[0:24:06.1] DF: That's a big pipeline. 

[0:24:07.4] NS: Yeah, a lot of leads.

[0:24:10.3] DF: That is a lot of leads and back to your question around promotional activity, when that pipeline starts I think again, this is exactly what few, also your audience knows this, immigration fuels filling vacant apartments. 

[0:24:29.1] NS: Of course.

[0:24:29.6] DF: When this pipeline is going to exceed availability. Sadly, I think that you know, those promotions are – 

[0:24:38.8] NS: The promotions are going to be non-existent at that point because there won't be availability. 

[0:24:42.9] DF: Absolutely but you know, the other point I wanted to make around this is you know, when we're talking about do the math, I really like landlords to understand as well that who this newcomer is. You know, there are landlords undoubtedly who see newcomers as a valuable tenant source. There may be landlords out there who have an outdated or an erroneous perception of who newcomers are. I really encourage landlords to educate themselves. 

Visit our sites both Rentals for Newcomers and Prepare for Canada, get a better understanding that these people are being [inaudible 0:25:29.0] come to the country because of their age, their occupation, their language skills, they are finding employment, they are finding great paying jobs, they are coming with money, you are not taking a risk with these guys – 

[0:25:47.5] NS: Totally, yeah. I mean, like I said, I think my brother is more of a risk than most of the newcomers coming in because – 

[0:25:54.2] DF: Well, you know this is a really, really important point because we've worked with financial institutions who recognize the importance of newcomers as – 

[0:26:06.8] NS: Contributors. 

[0:26:07.5] DF: Contributors, as this new audience. As I said, I've been doing this for a long time. I have been in this category a long time. When I started, you know banks were offering credit cards to newcomers with security budget requirements and now, they are offering unsecured credit on arrival, you know, $5,000 less. Why is it that they're doing that? Because they know that the people will make – 

[0:26:33.5] NS: They know they can afford it. 

[0:26:34.7] DF: Well, they know they can afford it and they know the default rates are really, really small. You know, we do work with a microloan provider, an education microloan provider. This is an organization called – not for profit organization called Windmill. They've provided over $45 million worth of loans on average about $15,000 loans. They've put into the marketplace $45 million worth of loans to newcomers and they've got less than a 2% default rate. 

[0:27:06.2] NS: Wow. 

[0:27:06.6] DF: The banks know this, these micro-lenders know this, default rates are really, really low. Back to the landlords, if you don't know who the new newcomer is, you may be missing on an opportunity for a valuable tenant and I will share one other idea as to why these audience is such a valuable audience, newcomers want to own a home. You know their goal when they arrive, 60 to 65% of them want to own a home within five years of arriving in Canada and the bulk of them do that. 

There is greater home ownership rates amongst to newcomers than there is amongst Canadian born for a whole bunch of reasons but let us keep in mind, they want to own that home so they do not want the debt credit rating. They are not born to this, their rental payment. 

[0:28:00.9] NS: No. 

[0:28:01.3] DF: I know that there are always going to be exceptions but the overarching financial benchmarks from banks, from Windmill suggest the default rate is pretty, pretty low. If you're a landlord, you know when you are interviewing this person although they may not have that credit history from Canada, use their credit history from overseas. You still got that job offer, find out how much there is in their bank account. 

Get to know what their education and occupational backgrounds are so you can be the judge of whether you think they're going to find a job and become a good steady reliable tenant for the next three plus years. Yeah, that's what I'll say to landlords.

[0:28:43.7] NS: Yeah, no. I think that that's a strong point and then really the core message I think for a lot of landlords who are hesitant about taking on immigrants, I think that that is a great, great thing to point out. 

[0:28:55.2] DF: Sorry Nicolina, I'd like to say something. 

[0:28:57.7] NS: No, go ahead. 

[0:28:58.2] DF: With all of that talking about promotions, so yes. You know what? Promotions may not exist but if you offer a fair price and you take them there, you are not taking a gamble with these people. You're going to get a tenant that's probably going to be in there for a good period of time. 

[0:29:19.1] NS: I'm thinking that possibly the smaller cities will continue with promotions as we've heard that Calgary has been offering promotions for the last six years. Those cities that are really actively trying to attract more people and migration there, then maybe those areas will continue with promotions and that's an opportunity for them to take advantage. 

[0:29:39.9] DF: Absolutely and anything that helps then probably as a suggestion, you know, one month free rent is probably more valuable than a value added itself because it helps again with that budgeting. 

[0:29:56.4] NS: Now okay, earlier I mentioned obviously the Rentals for Newcomers is available as a rental listing connection through the Rentsync platform. What led you to Rentsync and why do you think it's important that Rentals for Newcomers is available throughout syndication? 

[0:30:10.8] DF: We are really ecstatic with the relationship that we've developed with Rentsync and they've been a wonderful and supportive partner as we've been developing our site across a whole number of areas and importantly because you know, they're really recognized as subject matter leaders and the market leaders in this whole area, so we're really pleased with the relationship and the support that we've received where we look to Rentsync because of their relationship and their reach with landlords across the country. 

[0:30:47.1] NS: Right. 

[0:30:47.8] DF: That was really, really important to us. You know, we're leveraging the great relationship, the relationships that Rentsync has with landlords, property managers, owners across the country and so that's what led us to want to do work with Rentsync and it's been a wonderful relationship to this point and that we will go to a lot relationship with Rentsync. 

[0:31:15.7] NS: Yeah and I will mention, Rentals for Newcomers is a free listing site as well so that's important for landlords to recognize that this is something that they can connect with, with very little cost to them to connect with the right renters.

[0:31:29.3] DF: Absolutely. That's a great point and again, I remind and encourage landlords, you know in big cities and the gateway cities and the smaller markets, please take advantage of this because newcomers are arriving. You can help influence newcomers to arrive in your community if you're in a smaller community by promoting the fact that you got affordable housing. 

[0:31:54.1] NS: Right and I mean, that can also cause a trickle effect because you might have one family coming and then their families are coming and then they all come to the same city and that happened with my family obviously when they immigrated in the 60s so yeah. 

[0:32:09.6] DF: Absolutely. You know, what happens is no longer maybe that you know, it's family unification. That is a small part of the overall number but really, what's important is if communities have great support networks for newcomers, so if you are a part of a small community and your landlord thinking about, "How do I get some of these people into my neighborhood?" work with your local settlement agencies. 

Work with the support services that are within the community that support newcomers. Those are some tips on how you can start your outreach to newcomers in addition to getting out your listing on rentals for newcomers.

[0:32:51.8] NS: Perfect. Now finally, I just wanted to ask you quickly what your future vision for Rentals for Newcomers was and do you have any big plans ahead that both landlords and renters can look forward to? 

[0:33:03.5] DF: We do have some big plans. I'm always nervous about talking about – 

[0:33:08.0] NS: Okay, don't tell me anything, don't give away any trade secrets or anything but just tell me what you can or at least a teaser of what you can tell us. 

[0:33:16.2] DF: Well, one thing that we know is that newcomers, many newcomers have been required to put down a security deposit as a way of securing that first place. Then it can range from anywhere from five to you know, $5,000 or less. We're looking at introducing a lease guarantee. We've got all of the players in place. It is underwritten by a multi-national assurity bond company. It is brokered through a recognized brokerage company. 

With these guarantees we think can be a great way for those landlords. We just want that little additional security, that feeling of security but don't want to be responsible for holding lines of security deposits. It is a great solution for landlords, it is a great solution for newcomers because rather than – I mean, back to the fact that they arrive with money. They wanted a budget conscious, well, they are going through that uncertain period of when are they going to get that first job. 

It is more affordable for them to buy a lease guarantee than it is to strap themselves with that cash flow issue by handing over five or $7,000, so that is one of the things that we're looking at and ideally, you know, eventually it would be nice if we could facilitate newcomers being able to secure a place before arrival and that is something that we're investigating because again, back to this whole point system, with newcomers arriving in the country now, they don't know anyone and not necessarily. 

In fact, less than 10% of our audience intends to stay with family or friends when they arrive in Canada. The bulk of them are expect, look I said at the outset, over 50% want to be in their first permanent rental place within the first month of arriving from Canada and we get questions all the time and I find the place before I arrive. If we can facilitate that, I'd be working with landlords. If there are landlords out there who are interested in working with us to guess then and provide that solution, please get in touch with me. I'd be happy to start those conversations. 

[0:35:39.0] NS: Leading me to my next question, it's obviously been a pleasure chatting with you today but before you go, can you let listeners know where they can connect with you? 

[0:35:47.5] DF: Absolutely. First thing, go to rentalsfornewcomers.com, you could find out more information about us there. You can go to prepareforcanada.com to find out more information there or if you're listening and you just want to reach out, you can reach out to me directly via email. It's dfrattini@destcan.com. Reach out and let's start this conversation. 

[0:36:24.0] NS: Perfect. We'll add the links obviously to Rentals for Newcomers and everything in the show notes and people I'm sure will find you on LinkedIn or wherever else they can as well, so that's great. Thank you so much David, you were an amazing guest and I think I learned a lot and I'm sure a lot of landlords have learned a lot too because this is a very unique kind of topic and area in the rental industry and I think it's an important one, so thank you so much. 

[0:36:51.6] DF: Nicolina, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it and looking forward to again, working with Rentsync. Looking forward hopefully, we get some questions from some of the listeners and I'm looking forward to working with all of your partners in making this a success for both landlords and tenants. Thank you so much.

[0:37:10.8] NS: All right, awesome. Thank you and until next time, keep swimming. 

[END OF INTERVIEW]