This Week’s Big Idea
25% of Canada's B- and C-class office buildings are sitting empty. That’s not a real estate problem; that’s a housing solution waiting to happen.
This week I sat down with Robert Barnard of Toboggan Flats, who is doing something I haven’t seen replicated anywhere else in Canada: systematically converting vacant offices into affordable, community-driven coliving spaces and doing it in 9 months.
Listen to the first episode of Season 2 of the Everything Coliving Podcast. Do subscribe to our channels, as we have a series of outstanding speakers lined up for Season 2.
The Context You Need
Canada’s housing challenge looks familiar if you’ve been following markets in the UK, Australia, or the UAE, but with one twist: ownership culture is so deeply embedded that even cash-strapped young workers still dream of buying, not renting. The result? A generation stuck at home with parents or bleeding 50%+ of income on rent, while the political conversation stays anchored on supply for buyers, not renters.
The numbers Robert shared are stark. Affordable housing, by his definition, means 30% of income going to rent. Most young Canadians in cities are at double that or more.
The Toboggan Flats Model
Here’s what makes this model worth paying attention to:
Speed: 9-month build timeline from permit, vs. 5–7 years for new purpose-built rental.
Cost: No new shell. Existing elevators, HVAC, and structure are retained. Lower CapEx = lower rents.
Design: Three unit types (4-bed share, studio, en-suite) used as puzzle pieces to maximize floor efficiency. 20–25% of every floor is shared amenity space.
Community: A deliberate ‘room → street → neighbourhood’ philosophy. Small interaction booths on the floor, medium spaces (yoga, cinema, games) per floor, and a full community kitchen + co-working + gym on the ground level.
Returns: Target IRR 15–20%, development yield ~5%. Pre-leasing with anchor employers (hospitals, universities, government) to de-risk the fill-up.
The Ottawa Case Study
The building I got to see sits in Ottawa and is close to the University of Ottawa, adjacent to a major hospital. It’s currently almost empty. Under the Toboggan model, it becomes 390 co-living units at sub-market rents.
Robert has now assessed close to 100 buildings across 12 Canadian cities using a 24-hour AI-assisted viability tool built with partners at Arcalogix. The pipeline is real.
Why This Matters for the Global Coliving Industry
Canada has been the missing link in the global co-living story. The momentum exists in Asia, the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, but Canada has been a blank page. What Toboggan Flats is building is essentially a proof-of-concept for the entire Canadian market. Get this right, and the template is replicable across every mid-to-large Canadian city with a downtown office vacancy problem. That’s most of them.
