2023-06-29 20:20:04
(Photo: The Canadian Press)
The scarcity of affordable housing affects all of Quebec. Almost three-quarters of Quebec cities are in a tight rental market, according to a report by the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS).
A vacancy rate of around 3% is generally considered a balanced market between supply and demand. However, nearly 71% of Quebec cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants had a rate of less than 1% in 2022.
The situation is deteriorating while this figure was 50% in 2021. “Below 1% (the vacancy rate) is a critical level”, worries researcher Guillaume Hébert from IRIS, in interview.
The study’s findings come at a time when Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau’s Bill 31, which would end sale-leaseback, is the subject of much criticism from the government. opposition and tenant advocacy groups.
The Legault government is on the wrong target with the sale-leaseback, which is a way to avoid an excessive increase in rents, believes Guillaume Hébert.
The price of rent that changes tenants has increased by an average of 13.22% in 2022, compared to last year. In comparison, the increase is 3.62% for tenants who maintain their lease.
“The increase in rents is four times higher when there is a new lease that is signed, unlike a lease that has been transferred or maintained, underlines the researcher. (With Bill 31), we can expect rents to increase even faster when we are already in an affordability crisis.”
Guillaume Hébert questions the idea that insufficient housing construction is the reason behind the imbalance in the market, contrary to what many economists who believe that housing construction is insufficient due to demographic trends.
For his part, the IRIS researcher considers that the problem is that the real estate market does not meet the needs of less well-off households.
He cites the example of apartments offered for short-term rental on platforms like Airbnb, which removes apartments from the rental market. He adds that new build rental projects are often not affordable. “Ultimately, what we end up doing is building housing that is not accessible to a large portion of the people who are stuck in the rental market.”
Rather than betting solely on construction, IRIS believes that Quebec should consider “complete banning” of Airbnb-type platforms. In an interview, Guillaume Hébert acknowledges that the efforts of other jurisdictions to regulate platforms like Uber or Airbnb have encountered difficulties, but he believes that stricter regulation is possible.
The think tank would also like the government to provide more support for construction outside the private market, in the area of social and community housing. We cite the example of Vienna, Austria, where 60% of the population lives in social housing.
The Austrian example demonstrates that it would be possible to invest massively in social housing, judge Guillaume Hébert. “We might go much further.”
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