Brampton Council Moves to Strengthen Purpose-Built Rental Housing and Push Back on Over-Concentration of Additional Residential Units (ARUs)

At a recent Council meeting, Councillor Keenan and myself brought forward a motion to take bold steps in addressing Brampton’s housing challenges by incentivizing purpose-built rental housing and calling on the Province to reverse its aggressive Additional Residential Unit (ARU) legislation.

For decades, Brampton’s primary rental market has seen limited growth. As a result, many residents, particularly students, have had little choice but to turn to the secondary market, specifically rental units and rooms through ARUs. Today, Brampton has over 26,000 registered ARUs, accounting for more than 60 percent of all new residential units in 2025.

This overreliance on ARUs is not sustainable. Unlike purpose-built rentals, ARUs do not pay development charges or additional property taxes to support critical infrastructure. Their rapid proliferation has placed significant strain on city services, including by-law enforcement, 311, fire, police, recreation centres, and transit, while also raising property standards concerns and undermining neighbourhood character.

Before the last provincial election, Councillor Keenan began advocating for a pause on ARUs in Ward 3 to help address neighbourhood safety and service impacts. This motion builds on that work by making clear that purpose-built rentals are a far more necessary and sensible solution, which is why we are heavily incentivizing them. Unlike ARUs, purpose-built rentals are designed from the ground up to meet safety, fire, and property standards, while also contributing through property taxes to fund critical city infrastructure and services.

Our motion sets a new direction:

1. Major development charge (DC) incentives for purpose-built rentals, including up to 100% DC reduction for 2+ bedroom units with mixed use.
2. A request to the Province to allow Brampton to pause approval of ARUs in concentrated areas, so the City can catch up on cases related to property standards and unsafe living condition.
3. A request to the Province for local municipalities to govern the amount and location of ARUs in a way that better aligns with infrastructure capacity and community needs.

Brampton is prepared to lead where the Province will not. By strengthening purpose-built rental housing and managing ARU growth responsibly, we are working to ensure safer, more affordable, and sustainable housing for all residents.