No rent cap in the near future for Albertans: Nixon | 24CA News
The Alberta authorities shouldn’t be contemplating a lease cap for the province, citing affordability issues.
In an reasonably priced housing newser on Wednesday, Community and Social Services Minister Jeremy Nixon stated lease management shouldn’t be on the federal government’s radar in any respect and the province is targeted on growing the availability of reasonably priced housing.
“We’re focused on increasing the supply of affordable housing, to make sure that we have options for Albertans to address the increasing rent prices,” Nixon informed reporters.
“I agree that rent is something that should be affordable, but what we’ve seen with rent caps in other jurisdictions is it can have an immediate impact long term and creates long term challenges.”
Nixon’s remark comes after Calgary metropolis councillor Kourtney Penner raised the alarm on Tuesday concerning the fast will increase in rents across the metropolis.
Recent knowledge from Rentals.ca and Rentfaster.ca confirmed a greater than 25 per cent improve in rents for a two-bedroom rental 12 months over 12 months in March in Calgary.
One-bedroom models in Calgary additionally jumped by 23.3 per cent in comparison with final March. The common lease for a one-bedroom unit is $1,560, whereas a the common lease for a two-bedroom unit is $1,920.
“That’s an astronomical figure,” Penner informed reporters Tuesday.
“We are getting emails from residents — their rent is going up anywhere from $300 to $600 a month. That is high and well above the cost of inflation, even with rising interest rates.”
Calgary renter Vanessa Badger, who has been renting since she was 15, is going through a $200 lease improve after residing in her unit for seven years.
Badger solely will get $1500 a month from Alberta Works and can solely have $300 left to feed herself and her youngster after the lease improve.
She informed Global News she could discover a roommate to separate the rental prices.
“Two hundred dollars is too much. That’s like a money grab,” she stated.
“I understand that everything needs to go up, but I think the landlord should send out something stating their costs, at least.
“When I heard about the increase, I immediately thought of my son’s lunches, my bills and my pets. What am I going to do about that?”
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Maggy Wlodarczyk, a member of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), is asking on the province to implement a two per cent annual lease cap to cease “predatory” landlords from growing lease.
Alberta is one of some provinces that doesn’t have any type of lease management. Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Quebec all have some type of lease management for tenants.
“Rent prices have been increasing for the past few years now. People are having a really hard time even staying in the apartments they’ve been living in for years, especially with the rise of other cost-of-living expenses,” Wlodarczyk informed Global News.
“It’s becoming ridiculous.”
Wlodarczyk hopes that lease management might be an vital difficulty within the upcoming provincial election, which is scheduled to occur in May. ACORN will proceed to deliver rental points to election platforms, she stated.
“We’re not saying that they can’t increase rent at all. We’re asking for a two per cent cap on the rental increase,” Wlodarczyk added.
But Gerry Baxter, govt director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association, stated whereas he understands that folks aren’t completely happy about lease will increase, lease management could have “unintended consequences” for renters.
Baxter alleges the availability of reasonably priced housing might be negatively affected as a result of it’ll cease development.
Many folks may even be squeezed out of reasonably priced models as a result of renters is not going to need to transfer from their flats or homes, he stated.
“People stay put more often in rent-controlled environments… If you’ve got people who are looking for (affordable housing), they can’t get in and they end up having to go somewhere where they’re going to pay higher rents,” Baxter informed Global News.
“Now we’ve got less supply and vacancies have decreased even more.
“The best alternative to helping people who have affordability issues is to provide them with rent subsidies or portable housing allowances.”
Baxter additionally stated lease management negatively have an effect on small landlords due to the rising mortgage and upkeep prices. Numerous small landlords do not make a revenue out of the lease they cost, he stated.
“I can tell you small landlords have been suffering since the recession started in 2015. We have been suffering and we suffered through the recession,” Baxter stated.
“Landlords want to see people thrive, and if you’re looking to create affordable, strong and inclusive communities, we need to ensure that all Canadians have a broad range of housing options.”
–With information from Adam Toy, Global News.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
