Moving when you are a tenant has become a real obstacle course, according to the Regroupement des committees logement et associations de tenants du Québec (RCLALQ), which warns that the approach aimed at building more housing recommended by governments will not make the task easier for people looking for an affordable place to live.
In a new report published Wednesday, the RCLALQ maintains that rent prices displayed on the various platforms have increased faster than inflation in recent years, so that it is increasingly difficult for tenants to find a new home.
For example, in Montreal, the average price of rents displayed on Kijiji would have increased by 27% from 2020 to 2024, according to the RCLALQ compilation. The situation would be even worse in other Quebec cities, while the increase would have been around 33% in Quebec, 44% in Sherbrooke and 50% in Trois-Rivières during the same period.
This observation leads the RCLALQ to say that we should not think that building more housing will resolve the accessibility crisis. Indeed, the group notes that the theory that wealthier tenants can move to more expensive apartments to free up affordable housing often does not materialize.
“The problem is not that we are not building enough housing, but that the vast majority of us are building high-end rental housing at unaffordable prices,” reads the report, which is titled “ Moving: a nightmare for tenants, a dream opportunity for owners.”
The RCLALQ therefore hopes that governments will put more energy into protecting the rights of tenants, in particular by imposing mandatory rent control, including a rent cap and a “compulsory, universal and accessible” rent register.
In addition to the question of the cost of rent, the consolidation also highlights several other pitfalls that stand in the way of tenants who wish to move, such as the concentration of properties in the hands of a small number of real estate companies, rentals tourism, the monopolization of the rental stock by companies and discriminatory practices in the selection of tenants.
“To act against the crisis, there is no other way than to better protect tenants. We hope that the Quebec government will eventually open its eyes, and quickly,” said RCLALQ spokesperson Cédric Dussault in a press release.