Financialized landlords are targeting Black and Arab neighbourhoods across Canada ⋆ The Breach

Across Canada, real estate developers and big corporate landlords are systematically exploiting racialized communities, buying up properties where they live at low prices and then flipping them for profit—after evicting long-term residents.

A new report, obtained exclusively by The Breach, shows that this practice is not incidental but a nationwide tactic employed by “financialized landlords.” These are entities like real estate investment trusts (REITs), asset managers, and pension funds that treat rental housing as an investment to generate shareholder profits, rather than a place for people to live.

The strategy hinges on a discriminatory and cynical assumption: removing Black and Arab tenants reliably raises property values and unlocks new profits.

These landlords methodically target buildings with low rents and long-standing, mostly immigrant tenants. Through capital upgrades, neglect, or renovation-driven evictions—what the industry euphemistically calls “repositioning”—they displace current residents and convert the housing into higher-value assets.