Time To Oust The Tories: Rent Control Not Coming

[Nehkara]

Tories Blasted On Rent

Voters should hand the Tories their eviction notice next provincial election, advocates said yesterday while slamming the government's overwhelming rejection of rent controls.

Despite near-zero vacancies and soaring rental rates, Tory delegates voted against the measure during the party's annual general meeting Saturday in Edmonton.


Grant Neufeld of the Calgary Housing Action Initiative said the overwhelming snub of rent controls smacks of a government that's become out of touch.

I'm tired of this, the rental situation should never have gotten this bad in the first place and now they outright refuse to fix it. Brutal.

[JiriHrdina]

Rent control is a band aid fix that long-term destroys markets and helps no one. Even as someone who is a renter, I'm glad that we won't be having rent controls.

The city could solve a lot of the problems by relaxing a lot of the laws and restrictions around rental basement suites.

[Nehkara]

Well, as it is we have no workers because there is no affordable housing because landlords are allowed to, more or less, raise rents as much as they see fit.

... and how is it a bandaid fix when (I believe) every province except Alberta has Rent Control?

[Cowperson]

Price controls typically lead to shortages as investment capital moves elsewhere.

Rent controls are usually a bad idea.

If you're renting, you're in a position of vulnerability . . . . . but that doesn't increase your rights in the matter and it shouldn't decrease the rights of the landlord either.

Cowperson

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Well, as it is we have no workers because there is no affordable housing because landlords are allowed to, more or less, raise rents as much as they see fit.

... and how is it a bandaid fix when (I believe) every province except Alberta has Rent Control?

One of the primary problems is that there are no new rental projects being built and many of the existing rental buildings are being converted to condo...but introducing rent controls will only further this vicious cycle. No one is going to develop rental projects if they can't set their own rent.

I agree affordable housing is a huge problem but its not the responsibilities of landlords to provide the solution. They are in it to make a return on their investment like anyone else. And when the rental market is soft there is no one their to bail them out. Let the market take care of itself.

[SpitFire40]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Well, as it is we have no workers because there is no affordable housing because landlords are allowed to, more or less, raise rents as much as they see fit.

... and how is it a bandaid fix when (I believe) every province except Alberta has Rent Control?

Well said, we've got our lease up end of the month and I expect it to go up quite a bit just because if you're an owner with the market the way it is, you can...

If it too much we may move down to The Phoenix area because the ammount of rent you pay for the place you get is extremely valuable compared to Calgary.

I don't want to live in the deep south of Calgary just to have lower rent, if i'm going south, i'm going WAY south.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by SpitFire40

Well said, we've got our lease up end of the month and I expect it to go up quite a bit just because if you're an owner with the market the way it is, you can...
.

And?
Is this not the basis of how the free market works?

[Nehkara]

A temporary rent control should have been put in place to stop people being driven out of a city that is already desperately in need of people... and most of the people we seem to need are the people who won't be making tons of money.

Rents doubling overnight is ridiculous. I am not saying Landlords shouldn't be able to capitlize on their investment but gouging should not be allowed.

[Bobblehead]

If landlords aren't allowed to set rents, then they will convert to condos and just be done with it. And why would a place build any apartments if they can't set the price to what the market will bear?

The market is just really hot right now and capital projects cannot react fast enough. Controls to artificially limit the markets will work for a bit, but when existing rental units start disappearing even faster than they already are disappearing, then what?

And Jordan, haven't you already said at different times over the past few years that you are going to move to Las Vegas, Hawaii, and now Phoenix? Time to crap or get off the pot.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

A temporary rent control should have been put in place to stop people being driven out of a city that is already desperately in need of people... and most of the people we seem to need are the people who won't be making tons of money.

Rents doubling overnight is ridiculous. I am not saying Landlords shouldn't be able to capitlize on their investment but gouging should not be allowed.

Many landlords lost money for years because the soft rental market didn't allow them to raise rents to match inflation. When this happened I'm certain renters weren't knocking on their doors to offer more rent to cover these costs.

For many landlords this market is an opportunity to recover some money from previous soft markets. I don't see it as gouging but rather just good business.

[Tron_fdc]

As a landlord, as long as I get a handout when the rental market collapses I'm all for rent controls. If you restrict what I can make on my property, I expect something in return when that income dries up. Until that happens I'll charge what I think will give me a decent return on my investment, and pays me what I think my risk was worth.

[FireFly]

Not that I agree with rent controls, as I don't, but one thing that gets me is that I can't save for a downpayment on a house when I'm being cleaned out on rent. That said, my rent has only gone up $100 in the two years I've been here, so it's all good.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Many landlords lost money for years because the soft rental market didn't allow them to raise rents to match inflation. When this happened I'm certain renters weren't knocking on their doors to offer more rent to cover these costs.

For many landlords this market is an opportunity to recover some money from previous soft markets. I don't see it as gouging but rather just good business.

Lost money? I have a hard time believing that. Maybe they only just broke even, but I doubt they lost money.

Now they are probably mostly making a fortune off of people who now struggle to get by.

It's not right, sorry. Needs to be fixed.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

For many landlords this market is an opportunity to recover some money from previous soft markets. I don't see it as gouging but rather just good business.

Which is what the Tory platform is all about....market conditions straightening themselves out in the long run. I'm not surprised at all when they say they won't do anything.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

A temporary rent control should have been put in place to stop people being driven out of a city that is already desperately in need of people... and most of the people we seem to need are the people who won't be making tons of money.

Rents doubling overnight is ridiculous. I am not saying Landlords shouldn't be able to capitlize on their investment but gouging should not be allowed.

Rent Control is a bad idea.

I agree with you on this statement, I also concur that I believe most other provinces have rent control. however, its existance isnt the point, it's implementation process should be.

Let me clarify. When rent control is imposed, it is a fixed dollar amount as based on the current market rate. That being said, it means that your rent would be fixed at what it is now. It would not double overnight, but conversely nor would it decrease to create what is essentially dubbed "affordable housing."

That is why it is a "bandaid" fix. You have to apply pressure to market from within. The government stepping in to build affordable housing intitiatives are what are commenly known in most metropolitan areas as: "The Ghetto" or "The Projects."

Perhaps a more beneficial solution would be to more strictly legislate the abolition of apartment complexes to be turned into condos. Maybe a designated ratio for companies to slow this down a little. For instance if you were required to have a 2:1 Apartment building to Condo ratio (for argument's sake) if you would like to build a Condo building, you must have two apartment buildings to offset it.

Just a thought, obviously this plan would have its own ramifications, but I dont believe that rent control is the fix-all solution it is being passed off as.

Locke.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Lost money? I have a hard time believing that. Maybe they only just broke even, but I doubt they lost money.

Now they are probably mostly making a fortune off of people who now struggle to get by.

It's not right, sorry. Needs to be fixed.

Remember when we talk landlords we are talking about more than just faceless companies. I know a few people personally that carried a few rental properties for a number of years at a negative cashflow. Now of course when you factor in the return on the increasd property value they did alright, but in terms of money in/money out - they were definately losing for a number of years.

Regardless

Why isn't it right? Isn't this how our free market world works? Do companies/people not have a right to maximize their profits?

Some of these companies are publicaly traded - do these companies not have a responsibility to maximize returns for their shareholders?

[Nehkara]

Rent control is certainly not a fix all, I guess I am just really frustrated.

There needs to be a fix now as the labour shortage is becoming a big problem.

I believe the government's affordable housing initiative is pretty weak and should be pushed harder if they want to make a difference soon.

I guess I just want more to be done by a very very rich government.

[Antithesis]

Ask someone from winnipeg how they feel about rent control. Landlords there won't put any money into building new projects or into renovating existing projects because there is no way to get that money back out of the building, which falls into disrepair.

No one goes crying for rent controls when rents are low to protect the landlords ... and no one should now, when people can make some money off their investment. I know it's easy for me to say since I own my home, but still: rent control is a dangerous game to play.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Locke

Let me clarify. When rent control is imposed, it is a fixed dollar amount as based on the current market rate. That being said, it means that your rent would be fixed at what it is now. It would not double overnight, but conversely nor would it decrease to create what is essentially dubbed "affordable housing."

Just to add onto that- in Winnipeg rent controls specify that a landlord can only increase your rent by X percent per year; unless he can justify it. (Adding a swimming pool, etc.) Usually that rate is at 3-5%.

What I was thinking would work is a control of 10-15% per year for 2 years. As many have mentioned, we have seen rents doubling. At least make it so that Joe Renter doesn't have to move back to Saskatchewan after we've shown him what a great city Calgary is.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Remember when we talk landlords we are talking about more than just faceless companies. I know a few people personally that carried a few rental properties for a number of years at a negative cashflow. Now of course when you factor in the return on the increasd property value they did alright, but in terms of money in/money out - they were definately losing for a number of years.

Regardless

Why isn't it right? Isn't this how our free market world works? Do companies/people not have a right to maximize their profits?

Some of these companies are publicaly traded - do these companies not have a responsibility to maximize returns for their shareholders?

You confuse us with US.

I guess it is easy to do, just capital letters.

Companies should NOT be able to profit off the backs of struggling people. We should not be forcing a large portion of our population into poverty, it is not a good idea.

It is the same thing with gas prices honestly... companies continue to make record profits (HUGE profits) with seemingly no control on how much they can charge.