Option consommateurs joins tenants' associations in calling for a review of the method of calculating rent increases by removing landlords' net income, in order to reduce rent increases and ensure better access to the essential need for housing.
The Rental Housing Tribunal (TAL) recently announced a 5.9% increase in rent prices in Quebec for the coming year, the largest increase in 30 years. Since 2019, the TAL has granted successive increases totaling 16%.
The homeowner's net income component, which represents more than 60% of the rent, corresponds to the profit that the homeowner makes from renting a dwelling. To adjust it, TAL also uses an economic indicator that is more volatile than the general CPI: the housing component of the CPI.
Option consommateurs and tenants' associations believe that this net income should not be taken into account in the calculations, as it is not the role of the TAL to determine landlords' share of profits. The current TAL formula contributes to particularly high increases. It is essential to revise it so that it reflects only the real costs of maintaining and operating housing.
Such a major rent increase will have direct and disastrous consequences for many tenants. For a number of years now, Option consommateurs has been observing that the cost of rent is weighing heavily on the wallets of many households during the 400 or so budget consultations and interventions carried out each year.
Many people simply can't afford today's rents and find themselves in precarious financial situations. Housing is a necessity and a basic need. Without this basic need for security met, the most vulnerable consumers such as low-income earners, the young and elderly, and single people may no longer be able to meet the need to feed themselves, and are more at risk of developing physical and/or mental health problems, or ending up on the streets altogether.
In addition to reviewing the calculation method, Option consommateurs is asking the provincial government to prioritize the construction of affordable housing by abolishing the QST on new rental housing cooperatives and on new social housing construction.
We also think it's a good idea to set up a provincial rent registry. Such a register would make it possible to combat rising rents by giving tenants the opportunity to check the rent paid by previous tenants. We also propose that the government set up a summit on access to housing and home ownership. The aim and vision of this summit must be to treat this issue as a national priority.
