Real estate firm plans to turn $500M worth of Toronto condo stock into rentals
Montreal-based Jesta Group looking to acquire more than 1,000 condo units
Alina Snisarenko · CBC News · Posted: May 14, 2026
A Montreal-based private equity firm says it’s planning to buy $500 million worth of unsold condo units and turn them into rentals in a bid to “stabilize” the housing market.
Jesta Group, a family-owned global real estate firm, announced its entry into the Toronto housing market on Tuesday when it acquired a “bulk condominium portfolio” valued at $30 million located near Toronto Metropolitan University.
It now aims to spend nearly 17 times that amount to acquire 1,000 unsold condo units over the next year, according to the firm’s news release. The group also designs luxury yachts and owns hotels and resorts, according to its website.
“We’ve been looking at the market for years … in our opinion, there is a really significant opportunity right now in Toronto,” Anthony O’Brien, the firm’s senior managing director, told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.
“Our strategy is to buy it, rent it and then resell the units back into the market,” said O’Brien.
“We’re not pretending to be the affordability saviour, but I think strategies like this are going to help stabilize the market,” he said, noting that 10 of the units the group bought in its first acquisition were already rented out.
O’Brien said he doesn’t see anything negative about the approach, because it will serve as a catalyst to drive market growth.
“The anticipated supply of new condos is going to fall off a cliff because no one is building new product today,” he said, noting that would drive pricing back up and create a “more stable” market.
O’Brien noted that the firm sees the opportunity to benefit from their investments in around three to five years.
CBC News asked Jesta Group what would happen to renters when the firm decides to sell the condos back into the market, but it has not provided a response yet.
People need places to live: housing expert
Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute and professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto, said the proposed plans from Jesta reflect a private market trying to resolve a market failure.
“There’s a lot to know about this proposal, but we do need places for people to live,” said Siemiatycki.
“If these units are sitting there empty this could add additional supply onto the market which would be positive.”
Siemiatycki said it remains to be seen how well the group will function as a landlord, but its acquisition plans could indicate that other investors would come “out of the woodwork” to take advantage of market deals, similar to what happened in the 2000s with the financial crisis.
“Since the early 2010s, there’s been pretty much an unimpeded bull run [in the market] until the last few years,” he said. “So investors that invested then have done very well. And these folks are looking at the market and saying probably the same thing.”
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/real-estate-500-million-toronto-condo-stock-9.7199507
