This summer, 3,600 apartment buildings in Toronto will have new colour-coded signage displayed near main entrances, NOW reported in Toronto.
Starting June 15, landlords in the city must put up green, yellow, and red signs that indicate how well an apartment building is maintained.Originally adopted in July 2025, this effort was finally passed in city council on Tuesday. It was backed by Councillor Josh Matlow, who has long been in favour of imposing harsher penalties for landlords.
Similar to food safety program DineSafe, these signs are part of the city’s RentSafeTO, a bylaw program that ensures “apartment building owners and operators comply with building maintenance standards.”
Landlords must register with RentSafeTO if they operate an older building with three or more storeys or 10 or more units. Under these regulations, they must tell current and prospective tenants about the building’s rating before signing the lease, one a year, and upon request.
Will Doyle, a realtor at Re/Max Realtron Realty, says the colour-coded signage is “a nudge, not a fix.”
He says the idea rests on the DineSafe analogy of going next door if a restaurant isn’t up to code. In a Toronto housing market that’s slowly favouring tenants, “a red sign out front could actually push someone to sign [a lease] next door instead.”