Provincial renters’ registry needed to control costs, group says

After examining 61,000 “for rent” notices, a renters’ rights committee is demanding that the Quebec government create a registry documenting rental prices and enforce rent control.

Maxime Roy-allard, a spokesperson for the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires, said he knew that with low vacancy rates, apartment prices would increase. But the rate of those increases was surprising, he said.

To get a clearer picture of the state of Quebec’s rental market, his organization studied 60,987 Kijiji ads between Feb. 21 and May 27.

Those were for vacant units, which can be less expensive given that, in some cases, renters had lived there for years and the apartment was subject to provincial rent controls.

MONTREAL

In Montreal, the average studio apartment went for $935, a one-bedroom unit went for $1,140, a two-bedroom unit for $1,317 and it cost an average of $1,563 for a three-bedroom unit.

There’s a wide variation between boroughs. Downtown, for instance, a studio averages $1,184 and a one-bedroom goes for $1,535 on average. But in Lasalle, it’s $671 on average for a studio and $778 for a studio in Villeray—parc-extension.

In the working-class neighbourhood of Hochelaga-maisonneuve, studios go for $931, one-bedroom units for $1,084 and it’s $1,298 for a two-bedroom apartment and $1,580 for a three-bedroom.

OTHER CITIES

The average in Quebec City is $665 for a studio apartment, $801 for a one-bedroom unit, $917 for a two-bedroom apartment and $1,170 for anything beyond that.

In Sherbrooke, it’s $501 for a studio, $595 for a one-bedroom apartment, $710 for a two-bedroom flat and $957 for anything bigger.

In Saguenay, the cost is $488 for a studio apartment, $564 for a one-bedroom apartment, $690 for a two-bedroom unit and $745 for three bedrooms or more.

DEMANDS

Given the data, Roy-allard is demanding a provincial renters’ registry be developed so tenants can know the cost paid by previous tenants and contest undue increases.

As it stands, “some landlords don’t fill out the section of the lease agreement where they indicate the previous tenants’ rental cost,” he said. “And tenants have no way to know if what is written is true.”

Roy-allard says universal rent control is needed to keep prices in check. Quebec’s rental board, the Régie du logement, puts a guide in place each year to calculate increases, but it isn’t a binding document.

For those who would say Montreal is still a much more affordable place to live than Canada’s other metropolises, Roy-allard says, “We can’t become the next Toronto or Vancouver ... (cities that have been) emptied of working class renters.”