A sign for apartments available to rent in a building in Toronto.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Canada’s competition watchdog has found that algorithmic pricing tools haven’t been used widely enough by landlords to hurt the rental market, adding that it will continue to monitor the situation closely.
In a Monday press release, the federal Competition Bureau said it has concluded its investigation into software from RealPage Canada Inc. and Yardi Canada Ltd. But it said it remained concerned about the effects of the revenue management tools on competition in the rental market.
The probe sought to determine whether revenue management software from RealPage and Yardi led to anti-competitive practices, in enabling landlords to track what their competitors were charging for rent and set their prices accordingly.
The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario has received multiple complaints about landlords using the tools in question, according to staff lawyer Dania Majid.
“We feel that the investigation ended prematurely,” she said. “We would have liked to see this continue and [the findings] be shared with us publicly so we know who’s using the software … and the impacts on tenants and their communities.”
Competition Bureau issues warning on rental price fixing
Providing further details around the bureau’s findings to ACTO and similar organizations would allow tenants an opportunity for redress, she said, “whether it be legal or public pressure against using the software.”
RealPage and Yardi did not immediately respond to The Globe and Mail’s requests for comment.
The Competition Bureau’s investigation began in August of last year and mirrored cases in the United States. One of those cases, involving RealPage Inc., is still in progress. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice accused the Texas-based company of breaking competition laws by using algorithmic data to help landlords collude to pump up rental prices.
The DOJ’s complaint accused landlords of sharing competitively sensitive information about their apartment rent and lease terms to train and run RealPage’s pricing software, which would then generate recommendations on details such as pricing and lease terms.
Citing internal documents and sworn testimony from RealPage and landlords, the DOJ showed that RealPage employees said its products were “driving every possible opportunity to increase price.”
One landlord was quoted commenting on RealPage’s software: “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing.”
Canada’s rental market has gotten cheaper, but that won’t last
In its press release, the Competition Bureau said the use of revenue management software products in Canada was on the rise since their introduction, but noted that in 2024, landlords “significantly reduced their use of these products.”
It added that a “firm with a market share of at least 50 per cent – and 65 per cent in the case of a group of firms – will generally prompt further investigation.”
The bureau issued guidance for landlords using revenue management software and encouraged them to review features that “may distort the competitive process.”
While rents reached their lowest point in two years across much of Canada in September, there are new compounding pressures on renters.
For example, Bill 60, proposed last month by the Ontario government, is set to shorten the warning period for an eviction and reduce the amount landlords must compensate tenants for no-fault evictions, said Yaroslava Montenegro, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations.
“The fact of the matter is that housing is seen as a speculative market,” she said. “Being able to have these algorithmic tools further financializes and mechanizes that process, which is a huge concern.”