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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Quebec has rent control. So why are apartment prices still soaring?
As the asking price for rent in Montreal skyrockets, housing advocates are renewing calls for the Quebec government to set up a provincewide rent registry to support tenants fighting for affordable housing. Currently, tenants can challenge rent increases through Quebec's rental tribunal, known in French as the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), if their rent is higher than the lowest rent paid during the 12-month period preceding the beginning of the lease or sublease. The TAL also provides guidelines on rent adjustments every year, but landlords aren't required to follow them. Despite the province having a rent regulation policy, the asking price of rent in Montreal has shot up nearly 71 per cent since 2019, according to Statistics Canada's quarterly rent statistics report, published in June. Between 2019 and the first quarter of 2025, asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal grew from $1,130 to $1,930, the report says. A public rent registry showing how much previous tenants paid would help renters contest excessive increases, housing advocacy group Le Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) argues. "If it's not in place right now, it's definitely a political choice of not going forward with the registry," Catherine Lussier, FRAPRU co-ordinator, said on Friday. It's an idea 14 municipalities have supported and mayoral candidate Soraya Martinez Ferrada, leader of Ensemble Montréal, is now promoting. Adam Mongrain, director of housing policy at Vivre en Ville — a Quebec City-based non-profit focused on sustainable urban planning — admits that a rent registry isn't "enough to upend the current market dynamics," but it's a good place to start. "We have laws that protect the prices … and we don't use those laws because this information is not freely available," he said. Plante drops plan for mandatory rent registry Technically, Quebec has had a non-government-run online rent registry since May 2023, created by Vivre en Ville. The database lets you look up rent paid at a particular address for a given period. But since entering data is optional, there are gaps in rent information. WATCH | Why Quebec's rent regulation policy isn't helping tenants: Over 40,000 Montreal rents have been registered on the website, according to Simon Charron, a spokesperson for the Montreal mayor's cabinet. In 2024, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante backpedalled on her promise to institute a mandatory rent registry for the city, citing legal hurdles to have the TAL recognize data from what would have been a municipal database. Charron said in an email the provincial government would have to establish the registry since the TAL is a provincial body. Instead, the Plante administration contributed $30,000 to Vivre en Ville, with the mayor calling on the Quebec government to implement a provincewide rent registry. "Our administration has always supported the establishment of a rent registry. It's an essential tool for tenants to know the rent prices and for negotiating with landlords," Charron said. Quebec says operating registry would cost millions Mongrain said when the organization pitched the rent registry to the Quebec government, it shied away from the idea, telling the organization the registry would cost $50 million to build and $20 million annually to operate. After receiving a $2.5 million federal grant for the project, Vivre en Ville took matters into its own hands. "You don't have to do that because we built one for you," Mongrain said he told the provincial government at the time. He noted that since launching the rent registry, Vivre en Ville has been offering to transfer control of the website to the Quebec government, which has shown no interest in taking over the product and insists that it would cost millions to operate. "I don't think they have the credibility right now to say how much a website should cost," Mongrain said, alluding to the $500-million cost overrun tied to the province's automobile insurance board's online platform SAAQclic. Asked last week about the costs for a province-operated rent registry, Justine Vézina, a spokesperson for Quebec's housing minister, deflected, saying in an email that Clause F and G — which require Quebec landlords to disclose the lowest rent paid in the last 12 months on a lease — are tools to make rent "more predictable and transparent." Quebec Landlords Association (APQ) president Martin Messier said that on principle, the group is against measures like the registry, which would restrict rent increase. "We completely disagree with the fact that the rent should stay always at the lowest that it was in the last 12 months, because that is affecting the capacity of the landlord to keep up with the increase in costs," he said, adding that tenants' right to contest the rent after signing a lease goes against the notion of an agreement. Since the pandemic, small landlords have been struggling to "see a future for themselves and [their] building" as they face rising costs for repairs, mortgages, insurance and property taxes, Messier said. For Mongrain, affordable housing in Quebec depends on reimagining the relationship between landlords and tenants in a market that is "tipped in favour of sellers of housing services." Since that's a lengthy endeavour, he said growing the rent registry in the meantime would help move the needle toward making affordable housing more accessible.


CBC
08-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Quebec has rent control. So why are apartment prices still soaring?
As the asking price for rent in Montreal skyrockets, housing advocates are renewing calls for the Quebec government to set up a provincewide rent registry to support tenants fighting for affordable housing. Currently, tenants can challenge rent increases through Quebec's rental tribunal, known in French as the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), if their rent is higher than the lowest rent paid during the 12-month period preceding the beginning of the lease or sublease. The TAL also provides guidelines on rent adjustments every year, but landlords aren't required to follow them. Despite the province having a rent regulation policy, the asking price of rent in Montreal has shot up nearly 71 per cent since 2019, according to Statistics Canada's quarterly rent statistics report, published in June. Between 2019 and the first quarter of 2025, asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal grew from $1,130 to $1,930, the report says. A public rent registry showing how much previous tenants paid would help renters contest excessive increases, housing advocacy group Le Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) argues. "If it's not in place right now, it's definitely a political choice of not going forward with the registry," Catherine Lussier, FRAPRU co-ordinator, said on Friday. It's an idea 14 municipalities have supported and mayoral candidate Soraya Martinez Ferrada, leader of Ensemble Montréal, is now promoting. Adam Mongrain, director of housing policy at Vivre en Ville — a Quebec City-based non-profit focused on sustainable urban planning — admits that a rent registry isn't "enough to upend the current market dynamics," but it's a good place to start. "We have laws that protect the prices … and we don't use those laws because this information is not freely available," he said. Plante drops plan for mandatory rent registry Technically, Quebec had a non-government-run online rent registry since May 2023, created by Vivre en Ville. The database lets you look up rent paid at a particular address for a given period. But since entering data is optional, there are gaps in rent information. WATCH | Why Quebec's regulation policies isn't helping tenants: Over 40,000 Montreal rents have been registered on the website, according to Simon Charron, a spokesperson for the Montreal mayor's cabinet. In 2024, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante backpedalled on her promise to institute a mandatory rent registry for the city, citing legal hurdles to have the TAL recognize data from what would have been a municipal database. Charron said in an email the provincial government would have to establish the registry since the TAL is a provincial body. Instead, the Plante administration contributed $30,000 to Vivre en Ville, with the mayor calling on the Quebec government to implement a provincewide rent registry. "Our administration has always supported the establishment of a rent registry. It's an essential tool for tenants to know the rent prices and for negotiating with landlords," Charron said. Quebec says operating registry would cost millions Mongrain said when the organization pitched the rent registry to the Quebec government, it shied away from the idea, telling the organization the registry would cost $50 million to build and $20 million annually to operate. After receiving a $2.5 million federal grant for the project, Vivre en Ville took matters into its own hands. "You don't have to do that because we built one for you," Mongrain said he told the provincial government at the time. He noted that since launching the rent registry, Vivre en Ville has been offering to transfer control of the website to the Quebec government, which has shown no interest in taking over the product and insists that it would cost millions to operate. "I don't think they have the credibility right now to say how much a website should cost," Mongrain said, alluding to the $500-million cost overrun tied to the province's automobile insurance board's online platform SAAQclic. Asked last week about the costs for a province-operated rent registry, Justine Vézina, a spokesperson for Quebec's housing minister, deflected, saying in an email that Clause F and G — which require Quebec landlords to disclose the lowest rent paid in the last 12 months on a lease — are tools to make rent "more predictable and transparent." Quebec Landlords Association (APQ) president Martin Messier said that on principle, the group is against measures like the registry, which would restrict rent increase. "We completely disagree with the fact that the rent should stay always at the lowest that it was in the last 12 months, because that is affecting the capacity of the landlord to keep up with the increase in costs," he said, adding that tenants' right to contest the rent after signing a lease goes against the notion of an agreement. Since the pandemic, small landlords have been struggling to "see a future for themselves and [their] building" as they face rising costs for repairs, mortgages, insurance and property taxes, Messier said. For Mongrain, affordable housing in Quebec depends on reimagining the relationship between landlords and tenants in a market that is "tipped in favour of sellers of housing services." Since that's a lengthy endeavour, he said growing the rent registry in the meantime would help move the needle toward making affordable housing more accessible.


CTV News
03-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Quebec moving day struggles highlight need for social housing, advocates say
A woman enters a building next to a sign advertising an apartment for rent on moving day in Montreal, Monday, July 1, 2024. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press) About 2,000 people in Quebec still needed help finding housing on moving day, and advocates say affordable units are scarce. By July 2, that number was down to 1,902. The Société d'habitation du Québec said that of those, 406 are in temporary rehousing, 167 are in hotels and 239 are staying with relatives. 'It should also be noted that these households receiving more intensive support are not necessarily homeless, and even less so living on the streets,' the SHQ said in an email statement. 'All households requesting assistance are supported until a lasting solution to their situation is found. It is not too late to request assistance, as [housing assistance services] operate year-round.' The SHQ received 8,945 requests for housing assistance by July 1 in 2025, 51 per cent of the 17,374 total requests in 2024. Housing advocacy group the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) says a lack of affordability is driving the housing crisis. According to Statistics Canada, asking rent in Montreal has risen by nearly 71 per cent since 2019. 'The median income for all tenants in Quebec was $48,400 at the time of the 2021 census. Nearly 373,000 tenant households in Quebec were already paying more than the standard 30 per cent of their income for housing,' said FRAPRU in a news release. 'It is the ability to pay of these households, which are increasingly being excluded from the private market, that should guide housing policies.' Many tenants who renewed their leases accepted rent hikes they can barely afford, said FRAPRU, as the average increase this year is at an all-time high of 5.9 per cent. 'The extent of the resulting poor housing conditions is still underestimated: domestic violence endured, life plans abandoned, etc. A tight budget jeopardizes the right to health and dignity,' said FRAPRU. CAQ policies criticized The advocacy group stresses that the solution lies in building more social housing, outside the speculative market. 'We can flood the market with new housing, but if it's not truly affordable right away, we won't solve anything,' said FRAPRU spokesperson Véronique Laflamme. She believes governments must set specific targets for the construction of social housing to double the number of units within 15 years. In 2024, the CHMC released a report showing that though Montreal's vacancy rate rose slightly, rents still increased and remained unaffordable for available units. 'As long as social housing does not represent a much larger share of the rental market, the crisis will continue. This is not inevitable: it is a political choice,' said Laflamme. FRAPRU deplores policy changes made under the Coalition Avenir Quebec government, including ending its social housing program in favour of an 'affordable' program (PHAQ) available to private developers. Recent changes to the program allow rents of up to 150 per cent of the median market rent for units built using public funds. The CAQ also passed legislation limiting lease transfers, which were used by tenants as a tool to maintain affordability, and advocates have criticized the Housing Minister's new formula to calculate rent hikes, saying it will allow even higher increases. FRAPRU highlighted that it's taking households receiving housing assistance are waiting longer to find a place, and the numbers around July 1 are just the tip of the iceberg as issues persist year-round. 'This illustrates the depth of the crisis: the scarcity of available housing combined with high prices is preventing thousands of tenants from finding permanent accommodation within an acceptable timeframe and under acceptable conditions,' said FRAPRU.

Montreal Gazette
30-06-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
More than 270 Montreal households on hunt for new home just hours ahead of moving day
By Moving day traditionally brings chaos to Montreal's streets, but those on the front lines of the housing crunch say hundreds of renters are still searching for a new place to call home just hours ahead of July 1. 'Right now, we have more than 270 households supported by our services,' Isabelle Girard-Fortier, director of rental services at the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal, said in an interview Monday afternoon with The Gazette. 'So, these are households that are still looking for accommodations, but there are also some of these households that are already temporarily staying with us.' The OMHM has rooms blocked off at partnering hotels for those who find themselves without an apartment. But she pointed out those are only temporary and maybe not the most comfortable option for some, such as large families. The municipal housing office can also help shelter people's belongings. Quebec's yearly mass migration takes place on July 1 as that is when the majority of leases begin, but that means many residents are stuck looking for a new apartment at the same time. FRAPRU, a housing advocacy group, noted that 2025 has been 'an extremely difficult year' so far. Tenants are facing 'virtually historic rent increases,' said FRAPRU spokesperson Véronique Laflamme. She cited a recent study from Statistics Canada that found Montreal's rental prices have jumped by 71 per cent since 2019. 'We feel like we haven't seen everything yet with these rent increases' taking effect Tuesday, she said. 'We're really worried that even more tenants will no longer be able to make ends meet and that even more will become impoverished, even though we've already heard year after year from food banks that housing affordability is preventing people from eating properly.' The rising costs are particularly hard on low-income households, particularly seniors, she added. 'The housing search period was very tough because tenants, basically realizing that it would be difficult to absorb the new rent increase, were looking for solutions and realizing that the available rental units were far too expensive,' Laflamme said. Montrealers of all stripes have asked for help when it comes to finding a new apartment, according to the OMHM. The level of demand is around the same as it was in 2024. 'It really varies,' Girard-Fortier said of those who require assistance. 'Last year, we had a lot of single women versus single men. Then, for a few years now, it's increasingly families with children, too.' The office assists renters all over the city, but Girard-Fortier said the Villeray—St-Michel—Parc-Extension, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Montreal North areas are among some of the hot spots this year. Along with other organizations, both the OMHM and FRAPRU will be open on moving day, as well as in the coming days. Their teams will be available to help anyone who needs it. The City of Montreal says anyone who still hasn't found a new home in time should call 311 for assistance.

CBC
05-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Moving day in Montreal is coming — and housing advocates are worried
With moving day in Montreal still two months away, housing advocacy groups say they are already overwhelmed by requests for help. One organization attributes the surge in demand to this year's recommended rent increase by Quebec's housing tribunal, the highest in 30 years, coupled with a persistently low vacancy rate. "Some tenants have the feeling that they are at the limit of what they can pay now already with their rent but they don't have any solution because if they quit what they have right now, they're not going to find something that's necessarily cheaper," said Catherine Lussier, co-ordinator for Le Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU). Despina Sourias, the city's executive committee member in charge of housing, said local organizations are lacking some resources to meet the demand, but Montreal is offering assistance. The city is allocating $1.5 million over three years to help 22 local housing organizations. Residents can also call 211 or 311 for housing help, and the municipal housing office provides an online platform to help renters find affordable apartments. Montreal's rent registry is also available to help identify average rents by neighbourhood, Montreal says in a news release Thursday. Sourias said July 1 is increasingly stressful for Montrealers struggling to find affordable housing, but the city has doubled its support budget since 2019 and continues to work with the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal (OMHM) to provide guidance and resources. She said the city is committed to raising awareness, offering financial aid and mobilizing partners to ensure no one is left behind. Sourias said these measures help, "but let's be honest, we all have to work together to make the situation better." Lussier described the city's efforts as a temporary fix that fails to address the real needs tenants have. Those needs include rent control and tougher eviction rules. "If we don't cover both of these elements, one is just going to be worse than the other one," she said. "I think there are other measures the Quebec government has to put in place." And, she added, the government needs to act quickly to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. WATCH | Montreal tries to speed up permit approval: Montreal's push to speed up housing construction is working, but not as fast as it hoped 3 days ago Duration 1:44 Since the beginning of 2025, the city's 19 boroughs have set a goal to approve housing projects that don't require special permits within 120 days. It's still early, but the city says so far, the majority of permit approvals are still taking longer than they'd like. Quebec Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau has stated that rent supplements are available for those in need, but the eligibility requirements exclude many — especially those evicted for non-payment. Housing came up during the recent federal election. Since winning, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he'd follow through on creating a new housing entity and provide $25 billion in financing to private developers with a goal of building "twice as many homes per year" using Canadian products, including lumber. Carney's plan sets the goal of building nearly 500,000 new homes annually across Canada. On a local level, since the beginning of 2025, the city's 19 boroughs have set a goal to approve housing projects that don't require special permits within 120 days. It's still early, but the city says so far, the majority of permit approvals are still taking longer than they'd like. At the same time, the city has discovered that 77 per cent of projects don't need special permits.