Ad offering free rent for ‘friends-with-benefits relationship’ in Brampton likely fake, landlord advocate says

An online ad offering free rent in exchange for a “friends-with-benefits relationship” in Brampton could be fake and a case of someone trying to stir up racial tensions in Ontario, a landlord watchdog says.

The questionable listing was posted on Facebook marketplace and offered private or shared accommodation “ONLY FOR GIRLS” near Brampton’s Bramalea City Centre.

The ad has since been taken down but had three options – a private room for $500, a shared room for $300 or free rent and $200 monthly spending money “for those who are okay with Friends-with-benefits relationship” with “an Indian boy.”

Often shortened on dating apps to “FWB,” the term is used to describe an occasional or casual sexual relationship.

“I have a hard time believing it,” says Kevin Costain, director of the Small Ownership Landlords Ontario (SOLO), of the ad that went viral online.

He said there’s no shortage of “racist comments” on websites like Reddit or X on housing and immigration, and Costain believes the ad is either from overseas or a case of someone “rage baiting” against South Asians.

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“People are just so angry on every side of this issue,” he said. “Nobody is in the middle…we’ve got to ratchet down that rhetoric.”

A spokesperson for Peel Regional Police told INsauga.com that the force is aware of the advertisement but was unable to comment on whether it was under investigation.

There were a few hints that the post was either a fabrication or made by someone overseas, Costain says.

The ad says the landlord is from India but lists the rent in Canadian dollars – something Costain said a local landlord would never put on a listing. The Facebook account of the poster has also been locked, a feature not available in Canada or the U.S.

An ad posted on Facebook marketplace offered private or shared accommodation “ONLY FOR GIRLS” near Brampton’s Bramalea City Centre.

And while the ad could be fake, Costain says it’s “a perfect example of how tense things are” in the Ontario rental market.

“It speaks to the overall tension that we have here between landlords and tenants, and the extreme levels people are going to, to highlight an ad like this,” he said.

One Brampton incident where dozens of international students were allegedly found crammed into a single home saw complaints to the city from both landlords and tenants. Some landlords have also been protesting the city’s controversial rental registration program while tenants are calling for more protections.

Regardless of the ad’s authenticity, Costain said it should be on Peel police’s radar and warrants a full investigation.

Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board had some 53,000 unresolved cases as of March 2023 according to a report from Tribunal Watch Ontario earlier this year, with some one million Ontarians tied up in cases.

A report released in March found that Canada needs some 5.8 million new homes by 2030 as the housing market is in an affordability crisis. Ontario has set an ambitious housing target of 1.5 million homes across the province over the next 10 years.