Proximity to transit is one of the guiding principles for the Toronto development firm Elysium Investment Inc.'s acquisitions, a strategy demonstrated once again by its latest purchase.

Elysium has acquired 41-47 Talara Dr. in north Toronto, which is located a few minutes walk from both Bayview and Bessarion TTC stations in the Bayview and Sheppard area. The 0.5-acre lot is an assembly which includes four properties.

The Elysium plan to develop it will call for approximately 350 units in a high-rise building.

“I think very highly of this node. It’s been underserviced, underutilized. We want to build where previously, density and scale and housing has not been provided and we want to build where amenities are easily accessible,” Sayf Hassan, chief executive officer with Elysium, told RENX.

With recent changes to the local density regulations in the Bayview and Sheppard area, Elysium hopes to take advantage.

“Municipalities have realized that this is where density needs to go, where the first-order transit systems are and where your highways are; where the infrastructure is, where the amenities are, where the hospitals are. The municipality has finally done the right move and unlocked density in these PMTSA (protected major transit station areas) transit nodes,” he added. 

Elysium wants to develop ASAP

The project is in its early days but the company is hoping to get moving on development as soon as possible.

“We’ve gone live on this deal. We are going to take this to a pre-application consultation maybe within a couple of months, if not less, and then taking it to formal submission shortly thereafter.”

Elysium worked with Trolleybus Urban Development to acquire the property but it will manage construction from here on, Hassan said. 

For Hassan, a career switch after 15 years with a condo development company came at the right time. Purpose-built rentals have a much more stable timeline of success, he believes. 

“What I’ve realized is over the different asset classes and different ownership typologies that there’s a democratization of shelter that I think rental housing provides, which it provides at scale. You can provide people with access to housing of quality, as opposed to ownership, but the stability of tenure is very important,” he said.

A preference for purpose-built rentals

Unlike condominiums, which have become the “default rental stock for so long,” purpose-built rentals provide far greater stability for tenants, which should translate well financially for builders such as Elysium.

“I’ve been on the other side, where I’ve had to move multiple times when I was renting, and you’re at the mercy of individual landlords, who can reclaim back the unit. Security of tenure is very important,” Hassan said. “It’s access to shelter that is secure and dignifying and permanent.

"To me, it’s no different than a home. It’s just a different rung in the housing ladder.”

The company now owns approximately 3.22 million square feet of gross floor area, with more than 4,250 rental units.

For Elysium, the timing is right to invest.

“Now is a great time to build. The construction costs are lower. Land costs are not lower, but land structures are more available. Land owners are more open to do structures and joint ventures and different ways of unpacking the land portion of things.”

New student housing division, Yarra

Elysium is not only investing in homes but also student housing with its newest venture, dubbed Yarra, which was named after the river in Australia. 

In the past, this market segment has been known as a “black-box kind of asset class,” Hassan said, and with a shortfall of approximately 180,000 student housing beds in Ontario the opportunity is ripe.

“If you have 10 students living in the basement in Brampton, or students having to pay $2,200 for a little micro-suite somewhere, just because that’s the only game in town," Hassan said, "I think there’s a cohort or a subset of students, that have their college experience snatched from them because they can’t live on campus, or they can’t do any kind of dignity or security or comfort.”

Elysium’s goal is building 10,000 beds for student tenants within three years. The initial target market is the Greater Toronto Area but the firm is targeting 12 markets within Ontario, according to Hassan.

“The idea about Yarra is to bring that sense of community and dignity and belonging and permanence back into the lives of these students, so that they can focus on learning and becoming special human beings as they’re meant to.

“We have an initial pipeline of close to a billion (dollars). We have four sites right now, one that we’ve gone firm on, three that we hope to be going firm on, with a mid-rise product and a vertical, high-rise product that’s going to be a super-tall, vertical village product that has not been really done before," he said.

"It’s just very exciting to bring some movement to the student housing asset class here in southern Ontario.”