{"id":7693,"date":"2018-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/marijuana-law-could-present-golden-opportunity-for-landlords\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T03:57:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T03:57:53","slug":"marijuana-law-could-present-golden-opportunity-for-landlords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/news\/marijuana-law-could-present-golden-opportunity-for-landlords\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana law could present golden opportunity for landlords"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get Landlord agreement forms here<\/a><\/p>\n

Just as his pet-friendly apartments filled a need in the market, one landlord is betting that his marijuana-friendly buildings will, too.<\/p>\n

The imminent law legalizing marijuana stipulates that it can only be smoked in private residences, and landlords have already voiced their displeasure. No-smoking clauses are common in leases and they\u2019ll inevitably encompass marijuana smoke too\u2014and that\u2019s where William Blake sees opportunity.<\/p>\n

Blake anticipates marijuana smokers will flock to abodes wherein they can light up hassle-free, so he and his group of American investors are looking at buildings in Calgary, where properties can be had at reasonable price points, that they can retrofit with strong ventilation systems and fans, among other things.<\/p>\n

Blake, an experienced landlord of over 20 years and a senior member of the Ontario Landlords Association, has fulfilled needs like this before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some properties that are pet-friendly properties because a lot of landlords don\u2019t want to rent to people with pets,\u201d he said. \u201cThe number of people applying for my units tripled because so many landlords don\u2019t want to rent to people who have pets.<\/p>\n

\u201cPet tenants are some of my longest tenants. One lady has been there for eight years because she doesn\u2019t want to move out and put up with some landlords who don\u2019t want her pets there.\u00a0 These niche markets can create long-term tenancies. Landlords don\u2019t like people moving out every year because then we have to advertise again and even risk vacancy, which is a landlord\u2019s nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smoking of all kind is usually prohibited in apartment units because the smell bothers neighbours and devalues the property. Moreover, fumigating a single unit after a smoking tenant moves out can be costly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they move, the cleanup cost can be very expensive and hit us in the pocket book and bank account,\u201d said Blake. \u201cTo fumigate and get it cleaned, it can cost up to $5,000. For a corporate landlord with economies of scale, $5,000 is still a lot of money, but if you have an investment property, $5,000 can eat up your entire cash flow and budget for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kind of buildings Blake and his investors are looking for likely won\u2019t have more than 20 units, and he believes renters will pay premium rates to live in them. Of course, tenants won\u2019t have to smoke pot to live in the buildings; they\u2019ll just have to be okay with it, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I don\u2019t smoke but it\u2019s going to be a legal right, and where landlords see it as a problem, I see it as an opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cAmerican investors are very interested in this. Vacancy is a landlord\u2019s biggest nightmare because we still have to pay the mortgage, but we strongly believe this will bring in a lot of applicants into the units, and that they\u2019d be willing to pay a premium price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s reasonable property prices will allow the team to test drive this idea\u2014they intend to have their buildings ready for the summer, in time for legalization\u2014and if all goes well, British Columbia and Ontario will be their next target markets.<\/p>\n

Related stories:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get Landlord agreement forms here Just as his pet-friendly apartments filled a need in the market, one landlord is betting that his marijuana-friendly buildings will, too. The imminent law legalizing marijuana stipulates that it can only be smoked in private residences, and landlords have already voiced their displeasure. No-smoking clauses are common in leases and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20936,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions\/20936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}