Last week, the mayors of 14 municipalities in Quebec called on the provincial government to establish a rent register. This was not the first political gesture in favor of this measure: in 2010, 26 deputies of the National Assembly had already expressed their support for it. The Mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, says she refused to sign this letter for two reasons. According to her, there is no evidence in favor of a rent register and it would be better to build and aim for a vacancy rate of 3% to balance the bargaining power between tenants and landlords. We, members of the Collectif de recherche et d’action sur l’habitat (CRACH), welcome the search for such a balance, but we maintain that a rent register is an essential tool to achieve it.
What is a rent register? It is a rent control measure that aims to make public, using a database, the history of rents paid for a given dwelling in order to prevent landlords from excessively increasing the rent. when changing tenants. It is therefore not a means of freezing rents. If, in theory, tenants can find out the previous rent paid for their dwelling by consulting section “G” of their lease, a recent survey revealed that 80% of landlords do not fill it out. Thus, a public, provincial, free and compulsory rent register could compensate for this lack of information which prevents the application of the Civil Code of Québec, as pointed out for several years by the housing committees of the province and their national groups (Regroupement des housing committees and tenant associations of Quebec and Popular Action Front in urban redevelopment).
However, the creation of a register comes up against the myths of the deregulation of the rental market conveyed by powerful landlord lobbies such as the Corporation of Real Estate Owners of Quebec. The latter believe that the supervision of the housing sector contributes to a deterioration of the housing stock as well as a reduction in housing construction and the profitability of property investment. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Studies have shown that the implementation of a register has no impact on the quality of buildings and, on the contrary, it can, under certain conditions, contribute to better maintenance of housing.1. Other research has shown that the implementation of a register does not have a significant impact on the profitability of investments.2 and that it can even help stimulate the construction of affordable housing3.
Admittedly, studies on this subject are not abundant, but this should not overshadow the innovative nature of the measurement and the importance of such a tool.
Elsewhere in the world, several examples have proven the effectiveness of the register and other rent control measures. For example, in Santa Monica, California, the mandatory registry not only provides information on the cost of rental housing, but also flags building failures. This dual function makes it a powerful mechanism to promote the completion of maintenance work, compared to the lack of supervised monitoring in the private sector.4. In Sweden, the register has helped keep rents affordable without harming the construction of new units5.
We know enough about the benefits of a rent register elsewhere in the world to implement it in Quebec. The lack of effective control of the price of housing contributes to accentuating the residential insecurity of low-income populations, particularly elderly households. It amounts to conferring an immense advantage on landlords in a negotiation that is less and less transparent and fair.
1. Slater, T. (2020). Rent control and housing justice.
2. Bonneval, L. (2019). Does Rent Control Prevent Investment in Real Estate?
3. Gilderbloom, J.L. and Ye, L. (2007). Thirty Years of Rent Control: A Survey of New Jersey Cities.
4. Ambrosius, J.D. et al. (2015). Forty Years of Rent Control: Reexamining New Jersey’s Moderate Local Policies after the Great Recession.
5. Lind, H. (2003). Rent regulation and new construction: With a focus on Sweden 1995-2001.
*Co-signatories of the Collective for research and action on housing (CRACH): Yannick Baumann, doctoral student, University of Montreal; Hélène Bélanger, full professor, UQAM; Fabien Desage, teacher-researcher, University of Lille, guest professor at the University of Montreal from 2012 to 2015; Montserrat Emperador Badimon, teacher-researcher, University Lumière Lyon 2/INRS; Gabriel Fauveaud, Assistant Professor, University of Montreal; Louis Gaudreau, professor, UQAM; Renaud Goyer, researcher, University of Montreal; Violaine Jolivet, associate professor, University of Montreal; Danielle Kerrigan, PhD student, McGill University; Chloé Reiser, researcher, Community Housing Canada; Julien Simard, researcher, UQAM; Tamara Vukov, associate professor, University of Montreal; David Wachsmuth, Associate Professor, McGill University.