Ontario property management is priced one of two ways: a flat monthly fee per unit, or a percentage of the income the property collects. Flat rates are the right structure for a single home, percentages are the right structure once a property has enough units that the manager's workload genuinely scales with occupancy, and the number that decides whether either is good value is almost never the headline rate.
This guide explains how each structure works, which add-on charges to ask about before you sign, and how to compare two quotes that look nothing alike. KEILTY's own published rates are used as worked examples because they are public, not because they are the only answer.
Written by A.J. Keilty, President, KEILTY Realty Management. Last reviewed 2026-09-18. If something here is out of date, email Hello@keilty.com and it will be corrected.
Flat rate means a fixed dollar amount per unit per month regardless of rent. Percentage means a share of collected rent or of effective gross income, so the fee rises as the property earns more. A flat rate suits single homes because the work does not scale with the rent; a percentage of effective gross income suits buildings because there the work does scale, and it puts the manager on the same side as the owner on vacancy and arrears. Whichever structure you are quoted, the number that matters is the total of every charge that can appear on a statement over twelve months, not the rate on the front page.
A flat fee is a fixed amount per unit per month. It does not move when the rent moves. Two identical houses on the same street, one renting at $1,900 and one at $2,600, cost the owner exactly the same to manage, because the manager does the same work on both: the same showings, the same screening, the same lease, the same maintenance calls, the same monthly statement.
A percentage fee is a share of what the property collects. Two variants are in common use in Ontario and they are not the same thing. A percentage of collected rent is calculated on rent actually received. A percentage of effective gross income is calculated on total operating income, which includes parking, laundry, storage and other ancillary revenue, net of vacancy and bad debt. Effective gross income is the more common basis at building scale and the more meaningful one, because it captures the whole revenue the manager is responsible for producing.
Frankly, the argument between the two structures is settled by a single question: does the manager's workload rise when the rent rises? On a single house it does not, so a percentage simply charges an owner in a higher-rent neighbourhood more for identical work. On a 60-unit building it does, because occupancy, turnover and collections are the work, so a percentage aligns what the manager is paid with what the owner actually wants.
Most Ontario firms publish no pricing at all, which makes comparison difficult and is the main reason this page exists. KEILTY publishes every rate, so the schedule below can serve as a reference point when you are reading a quote from anyone.
| Property type | Structure | KEILTY published rate |
|---|---|---|
| Single-family home House, townhome or condominium unit | Flat, per unit per month | $149 + HST |
| Small multi-family Roughly 5 to 100 units | Percentage of effective gross income | 7% + HST |
| Apartment community | Percentage of effective gross income | 4% + HST, plus $5,000 + HST one-time onboarding |
| Build-to-rent community | Percentage of effective gross income | 4% + HST |
| Commercial Office, retail, industrial, mixed-use | Percentage of additional rent | 15% |
| Lease-up only No ongoing management | One-time placement fee | One month's rent |
Rates current at 2026-09-18. The canonical schedule for each service lives on its own page and those pages govern: single-family rental, small multi-family, apartment communities, build-to-rent, commercial property management and the Lease-Up Mandate.
This is where quotes diverge, and it is the part owners most often skip. A low headline rate with eight add-ons costs more than a higher rate with none, and you cannot tell which you are being offered from a rate alone. Ask any manager to name every charge that can appear on your statement in a twelve-month period. The usual list:
Two further questions are worth asking directly. Does the manager own or have an interest in any of the trades it dispatches to your property? And is attendance at the Landlord and Tenant Board inside the management fee or billed separately? Both answers can be worth more than the rate difference between two quotes.
Convert both to an annual dollar figure on your own property, then add the add-ons you were quoted, then subtract nothing. Here is the arithmetic on a worked example.
Take a single-family home in Kingston renting at $2,000 a month, with one resident turnover during the year.
Quote A, 8% of collected rent, plus a half-month placement fee on turnover. Management is $2,000 x 8% x 12 = $1,920. Placement adds $1,000. Annual total $2,920.
Quote B, flat $149 per month, no placement fee, no onboarding. Management is $149 x 12 = $1,788. Annual total $1,788.
The gap is $1,132 on one house in one year, and none of it is visible in the difference between "8%" and "$149". Run the same exercise at $2,600 rent and the gap widens to $1,808, because the percentage moves with the rent and the flat rate does not.
Then run the comparison that actually decides the question, which is not manager against manager but manager against doing it yourself. At Kingston's average apartment rent of $1,713 a month reported in CMHC's October 2025 Rental Market Survey, one avoided month of vacancy is worth roughly a year of flat-rate management on a single home. That is the number that usually settles it, and you can run it on your own property with the property management versus self-management calculator and the vacancy loss calculator.
Management fees on a property held to earn rental income are generally deductible as a current expense against that rental income, and the HST on them is a cost to an owner who is not registered for HST. Placement and leasing fees, onboarding charges and maintenance coordination are treated differently from one another, and the line between a deductible current expense and a capital outlay is not always where owners assume it is.
Frankly, this is a question for your own accountant rather than your property manager, and any manager who answers it with confidence rather than a referral is overreaching. What a manager should give you is a year-end package clean enough that your accountant can work from it without a phone call.
It depends on the property type. Single-family homes are usually priced as a flat monthly fee per unit, and KEILTY publishes $149 plus HST per unit per month. Buildings are usually priced as a percentage of effective gross income, and KEILTY publishes 7% plus HST for small multi-family of roughly 5 to 100 units and 4% plus HST for apartment and build-to-rent communities. Commercial property under net leases is 15% of additional rent. Most Ontario firms do not publish rates, so the only reliable way to compare is to ask each one for every charge that can appear on a statement over twelve months.
A flat fee is better for a single home, because the manager's workload does not rise when the rent does, so a percentage simply charges an owner in a higher-rent unit more for identical work. A percentage of effective gross income is the better structure for a building, because there occupancy, turnover and collections are the work, so the fee moves with the effort and aligns the manager with keeping the building full and the arrears down.
Effective gross income is a property's total operating income, including rent plus ancillary revenue such as parking, laundry and storage, net of vacancy and bad debt. It differs from collected rent because it captures the whole revenue the manager is responsible for producing, not only the residential rent line, and it falls when units sit empty, which is why a fee based on it gives the manager a direct stake in occupancy.
The charges most often left out of a headline rate are tenant placement, lease renewal, onboarding or property setup, maintenance coordination as a percentage of repair invoices, vacancy fees charged while a unit is empty, inspection and administration and year-end statement fees, and early termination charges. Ask for the complete list in writing before signing, and ask separately whether the manager has an ownership interest in any trade it dispatches to your property.
It depends on the structure. Under a percentage of collected rent or of effective gross income, a vacant unit produces little or no fee, so the manager is paid less while the unit sits empty. Under a flat monthly rate the fee continues. Some firms charge a separate reduced vacancy fee. Ask which applies, because a manager who is paid the same whether or not your unit is occupied has less reason to fill it quickly.
Published rates are generally firm, and a firm that discounts its headline rate readily is often recovering the difference in add-on charges. The more productive negotiation is over scope rather than price: which services are inside the fee, whether Landlord and Tenant Board attendance is included, what the notice period to terminate is, and whether renewal and coordination fees apply at all.
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