Last updated: August 9, 2026. This page explains how MBL Developments produces the figures it publishes — the rent benchmark, cost bands, financing mechanics and CMHC program analysis — so that readers, professionals and researchers can judge and cite the work.
Rent figures in the Toronto closed-rent benchmark are built from closed leases, not listings. Asking rents are sentiment; closed rents are evidence. The benchmark reports medians and quartiles by pocket and unit type with sample sizes shown, and is refreshed monthly. Records are deduplicated and screened for concessions and outliers; small-sample cells are flagged rather than smoothed.
Published construction costs are planning bands for fixed-price scopes (currently around $300/sf ($290–310) for a Toronto sixplex). Every cost article states what the number includes and excludes — retail quotes of $350–425/sf are quoted-scope artifacts, and we say so explicitly.
Program pieces — CMHC MLI Select above all — quote the official criteria in tables attributed to CMHC's published program page with the date we last verified them, and label MBL's reading of the rules as interpretation. Program criteria change; our articles carry verification dates, and MLI-sensitive content is reviewed at least quarterly.
Worked examples (the max-bid formula, loan sizing, cash timelines) use deterministic arithmetic a reader can reproduce line by line. The same engine drives the Deal Lab education tools — with pinned tests against the published examples, so the public content and the software cannot silently disagree.
We do not publish our acquisition buy box, live-deal addresses before closing, tenant-identifying information, or lease records granular enough to identify a unit. Deal autopsies anonymize the district where confidentiality requires it, and say so.
If a published figure is materially wrong, we correct the article and note the update date in place. Corrections and challenges to any figure: info@mbldevelopments.com.
Researchers, journalists and industry professionals are welcome to cite MBL's published figures with attribution and a link. For the underlying methodology of a specific figure, or data questions, email us — we answer specific questions about published numbers.