PRIVATE SECTOR TOP SOURCE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Alec Stratford’s submission has major flaws in his arguments on housing (N.S. political class’s flawed view on housing disregards human rights, Feb. 20).

It is laughable to suggest that there is some magical “landlord right to profit” that forms the basis of government policy. It has never been harder to own and operate rental housing buildings in Nova Scotia, thanks to government policy, with rent control since 2020 top among the reasons.

With 97 per cent of rental housing income coming from rents, the government’s current rent control program has crippled the ability of many rental housing providers to stay in operation, let alone make a profit.

Building costs are skyrocketing thanks to inflation, interest rates, energy costs, carbon taxes (federal and in Halifax Regional Municipality), property taxes and mortgage rates. And governments don’t provide any rebates or supports to rental housing providers to deal with these high costs.

As money-losing rental housing providers sell their properties, new owners are either moving in or renovating their properties, both displacing existing tenants.

The majority of rental properties in Nova Scotia were built before the mid-1990s. They require renovations to be safe and modern. Renovations require money. That’s an economic reality that seems to escape Stratford’s line of thinking.

He also claims that “the majority of landlords . . . are primarily corporate owners and investors who operate through real estate investment trusts.” This is false. More than 90 per cent of rental housing providers in Nova Scotia are individuals without any employees.

As noted in the Gardner Pinfold economic impact assessment commissioned by the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia in 2021: “Most rental property owners are small scale, often individuals, making lower profit in Nova Scotia than the national average. Expenses are rising . . . so there is little if any room for businesses to succeed on lower revenues.”

Here’s more data to consider. According to CMHC, before the reintroduction of rent control in 2020, Nova Scotia rents increased at a lower rate than in rent-controlled jurisdictions in British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island. Since rent control has come back to Nova Scotia, rents are skyrocketing as new units being built are charged out at higher rents to mitigate the effects of rent control on existing units.

As the association warned politicians at the legislature’s Law Amendments Committee in 2021, rent control in Nova Scotia will result in more homelessness and higher rents. Sadly, our warnings came to pass. Nova Scotia’s rent control has led to more homelessness, existing housing supply taken off the market and the highest rent increases in Canada.

What is the answer? It’s not more bad ideas that attack and punish the private sector, which is the number 1 source of affordable housing in Nova Scotia.

The answer to our housing crisis is to ensure there is a home for everyone. That means maintaining the existing rental housing supply, which is overwhelmingly in the private sector by small operators, while building new homes.

This crisis can’t be solved by only the public and not-for-profit sectors. There aren’t enough dollars in the world to expect them to build and operate the tens of thousands of new homes required to house our growing population. We need the private sector at the table as a respected partner with government policies that recognize this fundamental reality.

Kevin Russell, executive director of the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia