You won’t find many good news stories about the Toronto condominium market, but RAD Marketing founder and president Riz Dhanji told RENX that his company — after experiencing the lowest point in its almost eight-year history in 2025 — is now enjoying one of its best and busiest years.

RAD is a boutique development sales and marketing firm that also does purpose-built rental and advisory work for real estate developers.

“We're heavily integrated with the developments we work on, so we work with the architects and we work on designing floor plans and the unit mix,” said Dhanji.

“We take a project from the start all the way to closing for condos and also do all the lease-up for purpose-built rentals, and then we also work on advisory with some of the biggest institutions in Canada.”

Selling existing condo inventories

A high percentage of the condos that were built over the boom period that preceded this ongoing slump were targeted at investors as opposed to people looking to live in them. Since the investor market dried up due to higher interest rates and other factors, developers have been left with unsold inventory they’re seeking to unload.

One option is selling at a discount to bulk purchasers such as High Art Capital and Jesta Group, which have been buying large numbers of units at a time in Toronto. 

“The challenge with the bulk buy is that they're looking for prices significantly below replacement cost, and in some cases it doesn't even clear the construction loan or it's just too low for the developer to make any margin on their product,” explained Dhanji.

“Some of them (developers) may have done bulk deals but they have remaining inventory that they want to try and get the highest margin for, and that's where we kind of co-exist with the bulk buyers. I think they're adding a great option for developers that really need to move inventory.

“But there are some that may not have 100 units left. Maybe they have 40 or 30 units, and they're prepared to wait a little bit longer to get a higher price, and that's where we fit the puzzle.”

RAD’s inventory sale approach

RAD is working with developers on other solutions to sell this inventory through repositioning, marketing and sales efforts to target end users in an effort to get a higher price than what bulk buyers are willing to pay.

While end-user strategies require longer absorption timelines and higher holding costs than bulk liquidations, the trade-off may be essential to avoid the up to 30 per cent discounts institutional bulk buyers can demand.

A minimum of 15 units is generally what will entice RAD to become involved with a project.

Dhanji thinks many condo units were priced too high during the good times, and RAD is looking at each unit and its price for its clients to try and come up with ideas to make it more attractive.

“The end-users are down-sizers, first-time home buyers and move-up buyers,” said Dhanji. “It's a longer sales process. 

“It's not like your buyer is going to come in and sign a deal, like we've seen over the past eight to 10 years, in a few minutes. It involves constant communication back and forth.”

The strategy and process seem to be working for RAD, according to Dhanji.

“The number of sales companies out there is slowly diminishing,” he said. “Developers are trying to use a resale agent to try and sell that inventory, but pre-construction resale versus traditional resale is a completely different game.”

The Ontario government’s expanded harmonized sales tax (HST) relief on new homes builds on its HST rebate for first-time home buyers. Dhanji said these policies have also helped boost condo sales, especially for larger units, which he expects will become more prevalent once the market starts to pick up again after current inventories are reduced. 

RAD’s current condo inventory clients

One of the condos that RAD is involved with is the Gairloch-developed Leaside Common, a nine-storey, 198-unit building at 1720 Bayview Ave., south of Eglinton Avenue East, in Toronto. 

“We've sold over 35 units in the past three or four months,” said Dhanji. “It's probably the highest absorbing inventory in Toronto right now, and it's because of our strategy. 

“We've got another project at Bayview and Sheppard that's inventory as well, and we've got more coming up that we'll be announcing shortly.”

RAD’s purpose-built rental activity

RAD is also involved with designing floor plans, unit mixes and amenities for purpose-built rental apartments. One of the current projects it’s involved with is an eight-storey former office building at 40 King St. W. in Oshawa, Ont. that’s being converted to a 119-unit apartment building called The Heathrow.

“We worked with the developer on hiring the ad agency, the interior designer, furnishing the units and finishing them off, and now lease-up is going to start in the next two months,” said Dhanji. “We've got over 1,000 leads that have come through our marketing efforts.

“We're starting to roll those people in through the project, and it's getting a very high uptick. It's a different strategy from a lot of purpose-built rental companies that just open up a traditional sales office, hire someone who's paid by the hour, and really doesn't understand how to sell and close.”