Some renters in northern Ontario turn to the rent-to-own model to become homeowners
CBC
When Genevieve Saint Hilaire and her husband decided to get into Sault Ste. Marie’s housing market, they chose an option different from the typical approach of putting down a down payment to qualify for a mortgage.
Instead they decided to rent to own their home.
She saw some ads from a company called Requity Homes that offers a rent-to-own model.
“My first thought was kind of, you know, it was a scam and not worth looking into,” Saint Hilaire said.
“And then I thought one day just to look into it a little bit further and find out for myself.”
What she found appealed to her.
Saint Hilaire put down a two per cent deposit on a home of her choice, and Requity purchased the house on her behalf.
Saint Hilaire and her husband paid Requity monthly market rent, along with an additional $375 every month that would go toward a down payment for the home — along with that initial deposit.
She said she appreciated she didn’t have to make a large down payment right away.
“This way we were also able to live in the house that we were going to be owning while we were saving up for it,” she said.
“So it was just, you know, the perk of being there, living in the home and enjoying the home as your own a little bit sooner than you would have if you were just renting and waiting.”
After a year they had enough saved up to apply for a mortgage and purchase the home outright.
Amy Ding, Requity’s founder and CEO, said she started the company because of her own experience trying to purchase a home as a newcomer to Canada.
Ding was born and raised in China, and came to Canada as an international student and "had a challenge just getting a mortgage."
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.