At a time when Drummondville is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis, a non-profit organization from Montreal’s South Shore has acquired nearly 400 homes there to protect them from “real estate speculation”. A major transaction carried out without government subsidy.
This is by far the largest acquisition made to date by the Rental Investment and Social Development Company (SOLIDES), based on the South Shore. The organization, whose objective is to offer affordable rents to its tenants, owns nearly 700 apartments located in Châteauguay and Longueuil as well as in the Montreal boroughs of Verdun and Lachine.
However, the organization’s housing stock has recently increased by 363 residential and student housing units and 41 commercial premises, acquired in various sectors of Drummondville. The objective was to protect them “from real estate speculation” by ensuring “their affordability in the very long term”, mentions a press release from SOLIDES, whose The duty got a copy. A press conference was held Wednesday in Drummondville to confirm this acquisition, for which the invoice amounts to $42.5 million, which includes transfer duties and costs related to renovation work that will take place during of the next few years.
Drummondville is the city in Quebec where the housing shortage is hitting the hardest
The organization thus benefited from the sale of 45 buildings that until recently belonged to Boissonneault Groupe immobilier. In an interview, the general manager of SOLIDES, François Giguère, indicated that he was worried about the prospect that this vast housing stock would instead be acquired by a real estate developer who would have tried to evict his tenants or increase their rent in a abusive. It must be said that these hundreds of units are currently offered at affordable rents, which generally vary between $600 and $750 per month for a 4 and a half apartment.
“The most important thing for us is that these are dwellings taken out of the speculative market”, underlines Mr. Giguère, who specifies that the majority of the acquired dwellings are already rented and that none of the tenants concerned will be evicted within the framework of this takeover. People with an “average or modest” income will also be prioritized by the organization to occupy the accommodation that will be vacant in this housing stock, he specifies.
housing crisis
The organization thus undertakes to maintain the rents for these units at an affordable price for at least 50 years. An initiative that takes shape at a time when Drummondville is hard hit by the housing crisis. The day after 1er July 2022, 135 households found themselves homeless in this city of Centre-du-Québec, out of a total of approximately 600 in Quebec, according to data then released by the Front d’action populaire en réménagement urbain.
“Drummondville is the city in Quebec where the housing shortage is hitting the hardest,” notes François Giguère.
Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) also show a rapidly growing average rent in Drummondville, where it rose from $696 to $768 between October 2021 and the same period. last year. Population growth in this city, which recently passed the 80,000 inhabitants mark, has also exacerbated the scarcity of apartments. Last year, 0.4% of rental units were vacant, a percentage that drops to 0.2% for units with three bedrooms or more, according to CMHC.
Of all the housing acquired by SOLIDES in Drummondville, 98 are apartments intended for students, the others being accessible to a wider clientele. Nearly two-thirds of the homes acquired are two- or three-bedroom apartments, which are becoming increasingly rare in this city, as elsewhere in Quebec.
No subsidy
In order to carry out this major transaction, SOLIDES did not have recourse to any government subsidy. The organization has instead relied on loans insured by CMHC and private partners, such as the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins and the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation. A business model that could inspire other organizations in the affordable housing sector, says the general manager of the South Shore Technical Resource Group, Elie Gravel.
“The financing like that of an acquisition of this magnitude at 100%, it gives the impression that we could do it ad vitam aeternam and repeat the model elsewhere”, rejoices Mr. Gravel, who contributed to the financial arrangement. of this project. “It’s something that is easily achievable,” he said.
However, the general manager of SOLIDES wants to be cautious. “It’s not something that can replace AccèsLogis”, a government program dedicated to financing the construction of social housing in the province. However, the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, recently confirmed in an interview with The Press the Legault government’s intention to put an end to this program and rely instead on the Quebec Affordable Housing Program, launched last year, which is not unanimous in the community.
“Betting only on affordable housing is a disaster,” says François Giguère, at a time when waiting lists are getting longer all over Quebec to obtain social housing. “The poorest of the poor, we abandon them. »