Latest news with #SorayaMartinezFerrada
Yahoo
4 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.
CBC
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ensemble Montréal mayoral candidate pledges $1M for community housing initiatives
Mayoral hopeful Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the leader of Ensemble Montréal, said that if elected she would allot $1 million to "empower community organizations and expand successful housing initiatives" to prevent families from ending up on the streets. Community organization programs she aims to reinforce include La Maison du Père 's rent assistance bank, which provides interest-free loans covering up to three months of unpaid rent. Those loans must be repaid within five years. "I want July 1 to no longer be a tragedy where families end up in hotels for months or on the street. These are preventable situations," Martinez Ferrada said in a news release published on Wednesday. The former federal tourism minister and self-proclaimed "mayor of housing" found herself in hot water after the Journal de Montréal reported on her collecting a security deposit from a tenant who is renting out her family home — a violation of Quebec law. She previously announced her intentions to abolish the city's " Bylaw for a Diverse Metropolis," which aimed to have developers include social housing in new projects but failed to produce any such unit within two years of its implementation. Martinez Ferrada said at a news conference on Wednesday that she is committed to creating a housing bank to reserve affordable housing units on the market and transfer the leases to "nearly 100 households without housing on July 1" — an initiative presented in Ensemble Montréal's 2021 campaign. She said her party would create a reliable municipal rental registry to protect renters' rights, noting that the current registry is spearheaded by Vivre en Ville and is not mandatory. A report by Statistics Canada released last week shows the average asking price of rent in Montreal has shot up nearly 71 per cent since 2019. Projet Montréal commits to new guarantee fund Martinez Ferrada's announcement follows that of Projet Montréal mayoral candidate Luc Rabouin. Monday, Rabouin said his party would implement a $100 million guarantee fund to help non-profit organizations secure funding for affordable housing. "We will guarantee from 10 to 15 per cent of the amount of the banking loan to be sure they get all the money they need," Rabouin said. He noted that his party would mandate the city's municipal housing office to contact all tenants for whom Quebec's rental tribunal (TAL) issues an eviction notice to assist them in finding another residence. Rabouin said he intends to do more to reduce the wait time for issuing construction permits.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Montreal mayoral candidate took in illegal security deposit from tenant renting her home
A candidate running to become Montreal's next mayor collected a security deposit from a tenant who is renting out her family home — a violation of Quebec law. The story was first reported by the Journal de Montréal. Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the leader of Ensemble Montréal, the Official Opposition at city hall, has promised to make housing more accessible in the city, recently dubbing herself as la mairesse du logement, French for "the mayor of housing." When her four-bedroom, semi-detached bungalow in the city's Saint-Michel neighbourhood was listed in 2023 with the asking price of $2,850 per month, the listing stated that the tenant needed to pay a "one month security deposit for the appliances." "This will be given [back] when the landlord collects the keys," the listing read. Article 1904 of the Quebec Civil Code outlines that a landlord may not "exact any amount of money other than the rent, in the form of a deposit or otherwise." The listing for the candidate's home also stated that the tenant would have to agree to pay a $175 cleaning fee, which is also illegal. Even though Martinez Ferrada's home has a tenant, the listing can still be viewed on the real estate agent's website, but it doesn't mention anything about a deposit. CBC News was able to obtain the original listing with the stipulation about the security deposit and the cleaning fee through Centris, a real estate website with a vast inventory of properties on sale and for rent. Speaking with reporters on Monday, Martinez Ferrada said she entrusted a real estate agent with listing her property. She described requesting and collecting the security deposit as an "error in good faith." In Quebec, a deposit is only valid if the tenant pays it voluntarily and without any pressure from the landlord. $1,000 fee, not $2,850, Martinez Ferrada claims Despite the fee being described in the listing as a "one month" charge, Martinez Ferrada denied the Journal de Montréal report that the tenant paid her $2,850 — which would be the equivalent of one month of rent at the price that was listed. The mayoral candidate claims the tenant paid her $1,000 and that the deposit was not for rent but rather for appliances that she had purchased for the home. She said she only realized she had collected the sum from the tenant after a journalist contacted her about the situation. She said the money has since been given back to the tenant. The mayoral candidate did not address the cleaning fee during her news conference Monday, but a spokesperson for her party told CBC News that fee was never charged despite what was written in the listing. Only the $1,000 security deposit was charged, the spokesperson said. "It's a mistake that happens far too often in Montreal," Martinez Ferrada said Monday. "When mistakes happen, you have to take responsibility for them." Martinez Ferrada was elected as the MP for the Hochelaga riding in 2019. In 2023, she was appointed as the federal tourism minister under Justin Trudeau's Liberal government. In February of this year, she quit federal politics with the goal of becoming Montreal's next mayor. Later that month, she became the leader of Ensemble Montréal. She was the only candidate in the race. On Monday, the candidate said she would continue referring to herself as the "mayor of housing." "Part of being mayor is taking responsibility for your actions and that's what I'm doing today," she said. No one's above the law, Projet Montréal leader says In addition to being an MP and Canada's tourism minister, Martinez Ferrada also served as the parliamentary secretary for the federal housing minister. In this year's municipal elections, she'll be going up against Luc Rabouin, who took over from Valérie Plante as the leader for Projet Montréal in March. When asked about the deposit and fees included in the listing for Martinez Ferrada's property, Rabouin said no one was above the law, "especially if you aspire to become the mayor of Montreal." "Two-thirds of Montrealers are tenants and they absolutely need to understand and believe that the future mayor of Montreal understands their reality and will be there to defend their rights," he said. Francis Dolan, a community organizer with Regroupement information logement de Pointe-Saint-Charles, a housing rights group, said in an email the controversy "puts into perspective our elected representatives' poor understanding" of the reality of renters. Quebec's municipal elections will be held on Nov. 2. WATCH | Martinez Ferrada outlines her vision for the city:
CTV News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Ensemble Montréal leader admits to accepting tenant deposit, says it was an honest mistake
Ensemble Montreal leader Soraya Martinez Ferrada admits she accepted a deposit from a tenant, which is not allowed in Quebec.
