There is a new corporate landlord in Toronto, and experts say the city has never seen anything like it.

Akelius, a Swedish-owned company, says it’s offering a new style of modern rental living. But tenant advocates are warning that its aggressive pursuit of higher rents is threatening to distort the city’s already unaffordable housing market – and push lower-income residents out of their communities.

So far, media coverage has focused on Akelius’s four buildings in Parkdale, where tenants claim the company is neglecting repairs in a bid to force them out. But the impact of Akelius, which owns $7.3 billion worth of property in Sweden, Germany, the UK and Canada, goes far beyond a single neighbourhood. Since entering the Toronto market in 2011, it has bought up 2,100 units in 31 properties across the city, from Weston to Birch Cliff, Lawrence Park to Regent Park. It has stated it plans to buy 10,000 units in Canada in the next few years.

Tenants all over the city tell the same story: the company moves in, embarks on major upgrades to some parts of the building but neglects basic repairs in their units. Superintendents who live on site are replaced by a phone number that’s little more than a black hole for residents’ complaints.