Legal duplexes (2 units)
Legal secondary suite (either up/down or side/side), separately metered or not. Owner-occupied one side or full rental. Common file across both provinces.
Multi-Family / Small Apartment
Sell a Duplex, Triplex, or Fourplex in Alberta or Ontario — Cash Buyer
Tenants stay in place. Rent rolls and existing leases assumed at closing. Capital gains and depreciation recapture handled by your accountant, not us — we just close on the deal. Cash offer in 24 hours; close through a licensed real estate lawyer in 7 to 15 days.
Tenants Stay In Place
Always Close With Licensed Real Estate Lawyers
Cash Offer in 24 Hours
Close in as Little as 7 Days
What We Buy
The Multi-Family We’re Interested In
Small residential multi-family — anywhere from a legal duplex to a small apartment building. Tenanted or vacant. Cash-flowing or negative. Older postwar walk-ups or newer builds. Where a listing would need cooperative tenants, a full rent roll audit, and 90 to 180 days on market, a direct cash sale closes in 7 to 15 days without disrupting the units.
Triplexes and fourplexes
3-4 unit residential buildings — still under Canadian residential mortgage rules and residential tenancy legislation. Common in Toronto west end, Hamilton, Edmonton mature area, and Calgary inner city.
Small apartment buildings (5-20 units)
Once you cross 5 units, commercial mortgage rules apply and the buyer pool shifts to investors. We buy in this range too — cap-rate priced, tenants assumed, common-area maintenance factored in.
Rooming houses and SRO buildings
Single-Room Occupancy buildings and licensed rooming houses have their own regulatory posture. Where the licensing is current, they trade like small apartment buildings; where licensing is stale, we handle it into closing.
Illegal or unregistered secondary suites
A duplex on paper that has a basement suite added without permits. A single-family that's been converted to 3 units. Financing dies on these on MLS; cash buyers price the compliance risk into the offer.
Distressed or vacant multi-family
Full-vacancy vacant buildings, buildings with major deferred maintenance, or buildings where an owner has walked away — all in our buy box. Priced accordingly.
Alberta
Selling Multi-Family in Alberta — No Rent Control, RTDRS Fast Track
Alberta has no rent control. Owner-set rents, annual increases within one lease term (with 90 days’ notice), and no cap on turnover-vacancy repricing. That’s a material factor in how multi-family trades — pro forma valuations in Alberta don’t need to bake in stuck-below-market tenants the way Ontario deals do.
RTDRS(Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service) handles most Alberta landlord-tenant disputes on a 2-to-6-week timeline — a real advantage compared to Ontario’s LTB backlog. Existing files transfer with the property; we assess the situation before offering.
Calgary and Edmonton multi-family markets are genuinely active — Bridgeland, Hillhurst, Kensington (Calgary), and Highlands, Alberta Avenue, Ritchie (Edmonton) have significant multi-plex stock built between the 1910s and the 1970s. Foundation age, electrical age, and secondary suite legality drive most of the variance in offers.
Ontario
Selling Multi-Family in Ontario — Rent Control & LTB Reality
Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17 governs most multi-family. Buildings first occupied for residential use on or before November 15, 2018are subject to rent control on existing tenancies (Guideline annual increases only). Units first occupied after that date are exempt from rent control on existing tenancies. That distinction drives a huge chunk of a Toronto/Hamilton multi-family’s value.
LTB backlog is the other big Ontario variable. L-form applications routinely wait 4 to 9 months for a hearing — sometimes longer. Tenanted sale with an existing L1 or L2 in flight is common; the buyer assumes the file. See our tired-landlord page for the LTB posture on a tenanted sale.
Toronto west-end and east-end triplexes (Roncesvalles, Junction, Leslieville, Riverside, the Danforth) are a major stock. Hamilton lower-city triplexes and duplexes are another. Both markets have a mix of pre-1919 build-ups, postwar bungalow conversions, and 1970s-80s builds. Financing for owner-occupant residential mortgages on 2-to-4 units is still workable; 5+ units flips to commercial rules.
Secondary-suite legality is where a lot of Ontario multi-family files get complicated. A property listed as a legal duplex but with an unregistered basement suite is common; financing gets tighter and insurance gets harder. We handle these routinely.
How It Works
Three Steps From Building to Sold
- 1
Submit the building details
Address, unit count, current rent roll (if you have one), any pending LTB/RTDRS files, and whether you're the operator or an out-of-town owner. Two minutes.
- 2
Get a cash offer in 24 hours
We underwrite on the actual rent roll (not pro-forma), factor in condition and any legal-suite complications, and send a clear cash offer within one business day.
- 3
Close through a real estate lawyer
7 to 15 days from accepted offer. Existing tenants stay in place. Rent-roll and security deposit adjustments handled on the closing statement.
Why a Direct Sale
Multi-Family Listings Move Slowly, Loudly
Listing a multi-family means the tenants find out immediately. Showings need cooperation. Rent-roll estoppels get requested. Building operations become common knowledge before the deal closes. If the file is quietly getting sold to solve a tired landlord problem or an owner needing liquidity, that’s a lot of noise.
Financing on multi-family is a shrinking pool. Buyers under 5 units qualify on residential mortgages but face down-payment ratchets. Buyers at 5+ units need commercial lenders with 30%+ down and a track record. Most retail buyers don’t qualify.
A direct cash sale closes without a full marketing cycle. No estoppel letters. No open houses. No lender appraisal delay. Cash offer in 24 hours, close in 7 to 15 days, tenants keep paying to the new owner from the day after closing.
Common Questions
Multi-Family Sales — FAQ
Do you buy tenanted multi-family, or only vacant?
Both. Tenanted is fine — existing leases assumed at closing, rent-roll and security deposits adjusted on the statement of adjustments. Vacant multi-family fine too. Where existing tenants are non-paying or under LTB/RTDRS proceedings, that gets priced into the offer.
What about buildings with an unregistered or illegal secondary suite?
Common file. Where a legal duplex has an unregistered basement suite added, or a single-family has been converted to 3 units without permits, we still buy — the compliance risk goes into the price. Retail buyers can't finance these; cash buyers can.
What's the cutoff between residential and commercial financing?
5 units is the standard Canadian cutoff. 1-4 units qualifies as residential (residential mortgage rules apply). 5+ units flips to commercial mortgage rules (higher down payment, DSCR-based underwriting). We buy on both sides of that line.
How does the rent-roll adjustment work at closing?
Standard statement-of-adjustments practice. Rent for the closing month is prorated between seller and buyer. Any prepaid rent transfers with the property. Last month's rent (Ontario) or security deposit (Alberta) transfers to the buyer, who holds it against the same lease. The closing lawyer handles the accounting.
Can I sell if I have active LTB or RTDRS proceedings on a unit?
Yes. Active files assign with the property — the buyer becomes the landlord of record and inherits the file at whatever stage it's at. Where the file is close to a hearing, that becomes part of the offer discussion.
Do you buy small apartment buildings (5-20 units) or just 2-4 unit multi?
Both. 5-20 unit small apartment buildings are within our buy box. Pricing on this range is cap-rate based off the actual rent roll rather than comparable sales — closer to a commercial-real-estate underwriting than a residential comp analysis.
Where We Buy Multi-Family
Multi-Family Across Alberta and Ontario
Duplex to small apartment. Major markets shown below — full city list at /alberta and /ontario.
Building in a smaller market? Submit your property — response within 24 hours.
Related Situations
Other Situations We Handle
Tired Landlord
The situation-side view: LTB/RTDRS files, non-paying tenants, and exit paths.
Learn moreCapital Gains on Rental
Depreciation recapture and capital gains on the disposition.
Learn moreMLS Listing Didn't Sell
When the multi-family listing sat all season without a viable offer.
Learn moreBehind on Mortgage
Missed payments before power of sale or foreclosure hits.
Learn moreVacant Home
Buildings sitting fully vacant — insurance, security, and carrying-cost math.
Learn moreCottage / Recreational
Recreational property angle for cottage-country multi-family.
Learn more
Get a Cash Offer
Sell the building. Tenants stay put.
Submit the property and you’ll have a cash offer back within 24 business hours. Closing through a licensed Alberta or Ontario real estate lawyer in 7 to 15 days. Zero pressure, zero obligation.