Condo manager shortage in Ontario raises fees for owners
A shortage of qualified condo managers is driving up costs for homeowners in Ontario, threatening to increase fees even as new units become available.
Many experienced managers were forced to retire in 2022 due to changes in training and licensing for condo managers.
“The demand for educated managers is just skyrocketing, and the supply is plummeting; that’s kind of created the issue we’re in now,” Eric Plant, president of the Association of Condo Managers of Ontario, said in an interview with Global News.
As a result, salaries for new condo managers have increased significantly. Some are starting their first jobs with salaries as high as $80,000 per year, which is ultimately driving up annual fees for condo owners.
“It’s hitting people very hard; it’s not helping the affordability crisis,” Plant said. “The worst thing you can hear when your mortgage has just gone up and you’ve gone from 2% to 7% is to get a letter from your condo manager saying we’re going up 6% this year, 10% more. It’s a lot to swallow.”
Manager exodus
The industry saw major regulation changes in 2017 with the Act, which introduced licenses for condo managers. However, the transitional licenses that allowed long-serving managers to continue working expired in mid-2022.
Many seasoned condo managers, already comfortable in their roles, saw the retraining as unnecessary and opted to leave the industry altogether.
Plant estimated that between 10% and 25% of the most senior people in the industry left overnight when transitional licenses expired in mid-2022.
“The industry had had a lot of problems, there were some major, major cases of fraud and other things that made the news and sort of prompted this,” said Plant. “So, no one in the industry was upset this happened.”
Ontario currently has 4,564 licensed condo managers responsible for managing approximately 12,690 condo buildings with over 900,000 units. The number of managers is not keeping up with the demand as the province continues to add new units.
In 2023 alone, 11,422 new apartment units began construction, with another 13,245 new units starting in the first quarter of 2024.
“The buildings being built now are far more complicated,” Plant noted. “They’re being mixed with commercial, there are hotels in them, there’s short-term rentals, there’s really complicated sharing facilities. The more in the middle of the city you are, the more complicated it gets.”
Higher salaries for managers
Anne Burgoon, a property manager and vice president of Eastern Ontario Property Management, said finding qualified managers is a significant challenge.
“There’s quite a challenge in hiring managers. They’re making really good money now,” she said, noting that entry-level administrators now earn between $60,000 and $80,000, compared to $40,000 just a few years ago.
“When you have this kind of economic mismatch, your prices go up, and the prices of managers have skyrocketed,” Plant added. “Three years ago, I was paying half of what I am paying for a limited junior license. Now, it’s probably gone up between 50% and 100% in three years.”
Senior managers can earn between $120,000 and $220,000 per year, but, with many experienced managers leaving, junior managers are often handling more than they should.
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“Because of the shortage, you have junior managers running a lot more than they should be running under a lot less supervision. ... We’re doing all we can to train as fast as we can, to make sure the ratios are good, but the reality is what it is,” Plant said. “If you’ve got a junior building and you’ve got lots of buildings and you need someone to run them, you’re going to be putting that person into probably a bigger portfolio than they can handle.”
Higher fees for owners
The ultimate result is rising condo fees. As management companies pay higher salaries, they increase their contract costs, leading condo boards to raise fees. While the price of a condo manager is a relatively small part of the total condo fees, other expenses are also increasing.
“Building costs have gone up significantly, but management fees have gone up significantly as well because of all of this and the challenges we’re having in keeping staff,” Burgoon said.
Neither Plant nor Burgoon expects an immediate solution from the provincial government. They hope that high salaries and more structured training will attract more graduates to the profession.
“These regulatory bodies were not there, so they built them from scratch over time,” Burgoon said. “And have there been bumps and things to iron out? Yes. And will they continue to do so? Yes, I imagine that they will,” Burgoon said.
An Ontario government spokesperson said neither the government nor its regulatory body “have a role in setting condo managers’ salaries.”
“The government is aware that the growth in condo housing has resulted in an increasing need for condo management,” they said, adding that the government would “continue to monitor trends” in the industry.
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