Lyndsey McNally, Director at Condominium Lending Group and faculty instructor at HRE College, joined Ben and the GetQuorum team in February 2026 for a live webinar on condo corporation financing and owner engagement. The session drew over 100 attendees including condo managers, strata property managers, and condo board members across Ontario and British Columbia, and qualifies for 1.0 CPE credits. The full recording is available on YouTube.
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The economic case for condo corporation financing — what the data shows
Lyndsey opened with data most condo boards in Ontario and across Canada have not seen presented this way. Using Statistics Canada and TREB figures, she tracked four measures from 2020 to 2025: the construction price index, the consumer price index, average salaries, and average condo unit values.
Starting from a base of $100,000 in 2020, average salaries and condo unit values by 2025 had roughly kept pace with consumer price inflation. The construction price index had not. It pulled well ahead of both.
Applied to real project budgets, the gap is significant. A capital project budgeted at $1,000,000 in 2020 now costs approximately $1,600,000. The average condo unit over the same period increased from $1,000,000 to roughly $1,100,000. The asset gained $100,000 in value. Maintaining it costs $600,000 more.
Lyndsey also compared reserve fund savings to GIC returns over the same period. A corporation with $1,000,000 in GICs would have approximately $1,200,000 after five years. Construction costs for a project budgeted at the same amount are now $1,600,000. GICs are the primary investment vehicle available to condo corporations under current legislation. A contingency reserve fund growing at GIC rates will consistently fall short of projects whose costs are rising at construction index rates.
Her point was not that boards have mismanaged. For most of her clients, the shortfall comes from economic pressure, not fraud or negligence. The legislation setting minimum contribution requirements has not kept pace with construction inflation for at least 20 years. A reserve fund study conducted even five years ago will likely underestimate what a project costs today, particularly in the Toronto market.
When a condo corporation loan makes sense
Lyndsey walked through the situations where borrowing is a reasonable financial strategy, and she went beyond the standard reserve fund shortfall explanation.
For aging buildings facing multiple concurrent projects, a loan allows the board to develop a long-term financial plan rather than reacting to each project in isolation. Buildings constructed in the 1970s and early 1980s often face overlapping capital needs within a short window — parking structure waterproofing, building envelope repairs, window replacements, and mechanical system replacements arriving close together. A loan structured around that full picture is different from borrowing reactively for each project as it arrives.
Construction deficiencies and litigation are another situation where loans solve a problem special assessments cannot. Under the Condominium Act, once a corporation collects money from owners through a special assessment, it cannot return that money if litigation results in a financial recovery later. Condo owners facing a special assessment who sell during a lengthy legal process receive nothing back. A loan avoids this entirely. If the corporation recovers costs through litigation, the loan is repaid and the only impact to owners was the modest monthly fee increase during the period.
Uninsured losses, property improvements under Section 97, and asset acquisitions — superintendent suites, guest suites, geothermal systems sold by developers to new corporations — are also situations where condo construction financing appears regularly in Lyndsey’s client work at CLG.
Why borrowing requires owner consent when special assessments do not
This was one of the more practically useful points for condo board members in Ontario in the session.
A board can levy a special assessment without a vote of the owners. The authority is typically built into the general operating bylaw. No special notice requirements apply. Boards can and do issue special assessments without owner consent.
Borrowing is different. To pass a borrowing bylaw in Ontario, the board first approves it, then it goes to a vote of the ownership. The threshold is a majority of all owners in the corporation, not just those who attend the meeting. That means 50% of units plus one unit must vote in favour.
This threshold is where digital voting tools like GetQuorum connect directly to the financing process. Getting 50% of a condo corporation’s owners to cast a vote through in-person attendance and paper proxies is genuinely difficult. GetQuorum handles electronic proxies and ballots. Lyndsey noted from her time as a condo manager that even two additional digital votes can push a corporation past the threshold it needs to pass a borrowing bylaw.
Ben added a related point: boards that build consensus with ownership before calling a formal vote are in a stronger position. Surveying owners informally in advance lets a board understand where the knowledge gaps are before committing to a meeting. Is the resistance about the project itself or about the financing? Usually both. Knowing which concerns are most common allows the board to address them directly in communication before the vote.
A practical roadmap from the session
The final section was a step-by-step framework Lyndsey gave attendees for working through a capital project.
Review capital repair needs regularly. Lyndsey recommended boards review the condition of the property seasonally and at minimum annually. Looking 2 to 3 years ahead at what projects are coming gives the board time to plan rather than react.
Contact the lender early. Boards do not need final pricing, confirmed timelines, or complete project scopes before making first contact. Understanding what loan structures are available early allows the board to incorporate that information into its communication strategy with owners. Contacting the lender at the end of the process, after owners have been told what to expect, creates avoidable problems.
Prepare governance materials. This includes financing summaries, FAQ documents for owners, information session plans, and the borrowing bylaw itself. The bylaw needs to be drafted before the board takes its first step to approve it.
Run the owner engagement campaign using digital tools — surveys, electronic voting, virtual or hybrid meetings.
Implement and track the project plan. Lyndsey added an eighth step the morning of the webinar: report back to owners when the project concludes. Owners who participated in the vote and paid increased fees want to know how it resolved. Closing that loop is part of running a transparent process.
About Lyndsey McNally
Lyndsey McNally is a Director at Condominium Lending Group and a faculty instructor at HRE College, where she teaches condo managers working toward their license. Her work at CLG focuses on special assessment financing, reserve fund shortfall solutions, capital repair loans, and condo construction financing across Ontario and British Columbia.
Talk to our team
If this session raised questions about your corporation’s situation, contact us directly at 289-470-5513 or through our contact page. There is no cost to the initial conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Do condo corporations in Ontario need owner approval to borrow?
Yes. A borrowing bylaw requires approval from a majority of all unit owners in the corporation, not just those present at the meeting. The threshold is 50% of units plus one. Condo board responsibilities under the Condominium Act are specific on this point. Special assessments do not require owner consent under most general operating bylaws, which is one reason borrowing and special assessments involve different governance processes. For more detail visit our condo financing FAQ.
Why do reserve funds fall short even when boards contribute consistently?
Construction price inflation has outpaced consumer price inflation in Canada for at least 20 years. A reserve fund study conducted even a few years ago will underestimate current project costs, particularly for window replacements, building envelope repairs, and major mechanical work. Minimum contribution requirements under provincial legislation have not been adjusted to reflect this gap. A contingency reserve fund growing at CPI rates will fall short of projects whose costs rise at construction index rates. This is the core financial dynamic Lyndsey covers using Statistics Canada and TREB data from 2020 to 2025.
What happens to a special assessment if the corporation later recovers money through litigation?
Under the Condominium Act, money collected through a special assessment cannot be returned to individual unit owners. Condo owners facing a special assessment who sell their units during a lengthy legal process receive nothing back if the corporation later recovers funds. A corporation that borrowed instead can simply repay the loan on recovery, with the only impact to owners being the increased fees paid during the period.
When should a condo corporation contact a lender?
As early as possible in the planning process. Boards do not need final pricing or confirmed timelines before making first contact. Understanding what strata financing or condo corporation loan structures are available early allows the board to build that information into its communication strategy with owners before a meeting is called.
Does this webinar qualify for CPE credits?
The live session offered 1.0 CPE credits for attendees who remained through the full presentation. The recording does not carry CPE credit eligibility.
