CoStar's Apartments.com Enters The Canadian Market

Apartments.com, the rentals marketplace owned by the powerful CoStar Group, has announced its official move north of the border to Canada.

CoStar claims that the time is right for Apartments.com's first international expansion thanks to demographic and price trends in the Canadian market that are making new home purchases unappealing and a national rental growth rate of 8.3% in Q4 of 2022.

According to a press release, the Canadian version of Apartments.com already has a large inventory of listings across the country with listings numbers expected to increase rapidly in the near future.

CoStar will bring the expertise and technology that made Apartments.com a leader in the U.S. market to bear in Canada promising listings featuring 3D tours, rich neighbourhood guides, building ratings and architectural photography.

“Since 2014, Apartments.com has been a trusted, easy-to-use platform for in-depth information about rental properties and we’re excited to debut this digital platform in Canada,” said Andy Florance, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CoStar Group. “Canada is an important market and we’re excited at the prospect of providing millions of people with better listings, clear search results and a wealth of information to ensure a high-quality experience for all users.”

Apartments.com recently announced a product integration with Arizona-based SmartRent which provides building automation for residents and owners. The partnership will see prospective tenants be able to schedule self-guided tours of listings they are interested in from the portal.

“We hear from renters and see from their behavior on Apartments.com that self-guided tours are a ‘must-have,’ not a luxury, for apartment communities,” said Stuart Richens, Apartments.com VP of Product. “Our partnership with SmartRent will allow our clients to educate renters and speed up the conversion process, saving renters and leasing teams valuable time.”

The Canadian version of Apartments.com will likely compete mainly with Rentsync, the company that operates six rental platforms in the country (Rentals.ca, Rentfaster.ca, Louer.ca, RentBoard.ca, RentCanada.com and Torontorentals.com).

Read and watch our 2022 interview with Rentsync's CEO Max Steinman and President Jason Leonard here.