It is through transparency and the sharing of data on the rental market that the soaring rent prices in Quebec can be curbed, estimates the organization Vivre en ville, which presented a brand new Rent Register on Thursday.
Accessible at registerdesloyers.quebec and already having more than 15,000 entries, the tool invites tenants to enter the amount of their current rent to allow people likely to rent their accommodation later to see if the increase requested by the landlord is reasonable or excessive. Owners are also welcome to contribute to the platform.
The register plays essentially the same role as Clause G of rental leases, in which landlords must enter the lowest cost of the rent requested in the last year, a clause of which only 20% of tenants are aware, because it is not always fulfilled.
“We believe the Rent Registry can be a valuable tool for governments in their mission to protect tenants from abusive rent increases and curb housing inflation. Full of relevant information such as the price of rent, such a register would help restore the balance in the balance of power between the landlord and the tenant, in addition to providing a reliable, accurate and up-to-date dashboard on the situation of the rental market, ”said the general manager of Vivre en ville, Christian Savard, in a press release.
Such a tool, which the provincial government and municipalities could appropriate, is essential to keep the cost of rents at a reasonable level, says Adam Mongrain, director of the Housing department at Vivre en ville.
“Unlike the registers set up by citizens, ours has an administrative capacity,” he said. We offer a turnkey, fully-funded solution. […] It is an extremely efficient and precise tool, in which it would be easy to integrate the information from the RL-31 slip, in reference to the statement given to tenants by their landlord for tax purposes.
The initiative will receive support from Centraide of Greater Montreal, which is committed to three years and which will disburse $104,000 for the first year of existence of the registry.
“We want it to work,” said its general manager, Claude Pinard. The registry will not only allow […] it is up to everyone to follow the evolution of rental costs from one year to another, but we can also make socio-demographic cross-references. Thanks to this data, we will be able to identify certain more specific issues. »
Other supporters of the platform include Laval’s public health department, whose assistant director – promotion, prevention and community development, Silvio Manfredi, spoke of the registry as “an easy way for citizens to participate in social change”.
Favorable tenants
To justify the need for such a register, Vivre en ville also published the results of a survey conducted by the firm Léger Marketing in which we learn that following a move, the cost of rent jumps on average by 19%.
It’s an unsustainable pace, caused in part by the lack of information on previous rents.
Adam Mongrain, Director of Housing at Vivre en ville
No less than 32% of respondents could not help but accept given the housing shortage, we also learn from the survey conducted online from 1er on March 18 with 5,550 tenants and whose results were weighted according to various factors so that they are representative of the Quebec population. According to Anana La Rosa-Dancoste, Housing Coordinator at Vivre en ville, this is “the largest study on rental housing in the history of Quebec”.
We also learn that 83% of tenants surveyed would be in favor of the idea of anonymously publishing information about their accommodation in the Vivre en ville register. A sounding from the side of the owners revealed that they would be 53% to support the replacement of clause G by the register.
The rent register will be accompanied by a Frequently Asked Questions section on tenants’ rights, the content of which was written in collaboration with Éducaloi.
A very bad idea, judges CORPIQ
In response to Thursday morning’s announcement, the Corporation of Quebec Property Owners (CORPIQ) contacted The Canadian Press to voice its disapproval of the rent registry project.
According to its director of public affairs and government relations, Marc-André Plante, publishing the price of rents will have no positive effect on the housing crisis, because it will not increase supply.
On the contrary, he indicates, the publication of rents could have a facilitating effect for owners tempted by renovation and, thus, on real estate speculation.
“Making rents public will make it much easier and faster to identify buildings that have the potential for renovation and therefore a quick return on investment,” says Mr. Plante. In this case, it is the tenants who will be the first losers. »