Optimizing Maintenance Operations

Across the Canadian rental market, large apartment complexes tend to get most of the attention,but the reality is different. A significant share of multifamily housing still comes from smaller properties, such as 12-, 24-, or 40-unit buildings in cities from Vancouver to Halifax. These buildings are essential to Canada’s rental supply, yet their owners often face a common struggle: how to maintain and manage them efficiently without the infrastructure of a large on-site team. The interesting part? Single-family rental (SFR) operators have already solved many of these same operational challenges, and their systems offer a blueprint small multifamily owners can adapt.

Once a multifamily property crosses roughly 50 units, the economics start to justify full-time, on-site maintenance staff. In those larger properties, there’s usually a superintendent or team permanently located on-site, handling everything from leaky faucets to heating system repairs as soon as they happen. But below that size, the numbers don’t work the same way. A few mid-sized buildings like a 30-unit in Kitchener and a 20-unit in Waterloo, can’t support the cost of an on-site crew. Instead, owners often rely on part-time superintendents, trusted trades, or a “call-when-needed” handyman model. The challenge is consistency: how do you maintain standards and speed without duplicating staff across several sites?

How SFR Operators Solved the Same Problem

Single-family rental portfolios, especially those spread across large metro areas, faced this issue years ago. With dozens or hundreds of homes scattered across a region, keeping someone stationed at every property wasn’t feasible. Their solution was to centralize maintenance operations. Instead of site-specific staff, SFR firms created regional service teams managed from a central hub. These teams used:

• Route-optimized scheduling to minimize travel time

• Mobile apps that tracked every work order in real time

• Preventive maintenance calendars to avoid costly emergencies

• Performance dashboards to monitor response times and expenses

This resulted in lower operating costs, better accountability, and faster repairs. And just as important, a more predictable, scalable system that worked across every property type and location.

Applying the Model to Smaller Canadian Multifamily Portfolios

For example, imagine a local investor in Calgary who owns three buildings: 16 units in Bowness, 22 in Mission, and 18 in Beltline. Typically, each building might have its own part-time maintenance person, or they’d all compete for the same few contractors. It’s reactive, not proactive. The solution was that the investor built a shared maintenance system covering all three properties, effectively running them as one network. By using centralized work order systems (like Property Meld, AppFolio, or Buildium) and shared technicians dispatched city-wide, they could deliver the same quality of service as a large apartment operator, without the overhead. Preventive maintenance could be scheduled by region, not by property. Work orders could be tracked from start to finish, creating transparency and reducing downtime. In short, it’s one team, with many doors, rather than many small teams constantly starting from scratch. And in today’s market, where labour costs are rising and tenant expectations are higher than ever, these efficiencies translate directly into stronger NOI performance.

For Canadian investors and operators, the opportunity isn’t just about saving money on maintenance, it’s about building scalable operations. By borrowing the best systems from the SFR world, small multifamily owners can operate with the same discipline and visibility as institutional players. If your goal is to expand, to move from owning a few dozen doors to a few hundred, this operational mindset is essential. You’re not just maintaining properties anymore; you’re building a platform for growth. Because at the end of the day, the resident doesn’t care whether they’re living in a fourplex or a high-rise. What matters is that when something breaks, it gets fixed fast and done right.