Landlords and rented housing in Toronto, 1885-1914

Housing research in Canadian urban history has tended to focus on individual home ownership in urban development. associating it with increasing affluence and satisfaction, while the historical importance of the rental sector and of the role of landlords has been largely neglected. This paper attempts to discover who landlords were and how they responded to the changing demand for housing in the late 19th and early 20th century. The research compares the situation in Britain with that of Toronto, where rates of owner-occupation were higher. It uses contemporary data and other sources to examine patterns of construction, financing and ownership, occupational structures of owners and tenants as well as landlord profiles and activity in three study areas of Toronto during the period 1885-1914