Property values: goodbye affordable rents
Property values are soaring in Montreal, resulting in stories like this one about worries in Point St-Charles about affordability and this one about a woman whose Park Ex flat has been repossessed and is having trouble finding another and this one about a tenant who was evicted because the owner wanted to rent the flat out via Airbnb.
The CAQ government has tabled Bill 16 to reorganize the rental board, but some fear it will simply become even more of a mechanism to help landlords get rid of their less profitable tenants.
Kevin 09:26 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
Everything that makes big cities attractive means that they will become more expensive.
We, as a society, have to accept that and adjust our expectations accordingly.
To me, pushing all young people into thinking the only/best path is to move to Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal is the same mistake as try to convince people that getting a B.A. was essential. This generation’s version of “get into plastics.”
Raymond Lutz 09:57 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
Also: “Everything that makes medications attractive means that they will become more expensive. We, as a society, have to accept that and adjust our expectations accordingly.” – Martin Shkreli.
Ephraim 11:33 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
Raymond – There is always going to be a winner and a loser in the game of capitalism, the game is to minimize those in the losing column of compensate them with tax money.
The AirBnB problem is a significant problem. Until the government takes it seriously and actually does something about it, it will continue to grow as a monster. It’s been made illegal to rent full apartments that you aren’t resident of, in many many cities. The government isn’t enforcing enough. In Berlin, the fines go up to EUR100000 and Barcelona actually fines AirBnB for listing illegal apartments. The landlords will continue to seek higher rents as long as this is a possibility. Revenu Quebec is in charge of the portfolio, but in some citiles, like Quebec City, the local government has actually gone ahead and rented apartments, checked their licences and fined them. RQ should pay them the finder’s fees, for tax cheats, but we don’t know what RQ does or has done because no journalists have pushed and asked the right questions.
qatzelok 12:16 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
Everything that makes health care, education, housing, food and water attratctive means that they will become more expensive? More out of reach?
I must have missed that flash of red light that made everyone really submissive to the destructive whims of late capitalism.
Kevin 14:10 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz
That’s amazing. You found a new variant on Godwin’s Law. I’m impressed because not only was your reply so quick but also because it demonstrates an astonishing misunderstanding of just about everything possible with regards to housing and health care.
Faiz Imam 14:26 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
One thing that distinguishes Montreal from Toronto or Vancouver is that we seem to prefer building dense all over the island. I’m continually surprised by the number of 6 floor condo blocks in the middle of some generic suburb. I believe its largely an outcome of the rules set in the PMAD a decade ago.
Not always particularly well designed, not always urban, but it’s lead to a lot more units on the market over a much wider geography than you’d expect.
Given the really huge number of units continually coming online, I hope it will control the prices somewhat.
But we also need to learn from the mistakes of others. We need to get laws against vacant homes and airbnb before it becomes a crisis (more of a crisis?)
Blork 17:47 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
@Faiz Imam, I think that’s a fairly new phenomenon (dense building in the suburbs). There is certainly no shortage of non-density all over the island. But as real estate prices rise all over, and as demographics shift, I think people are more willing to buy into denser housing styles outside of the city center. After all, why buy a $600,000 house if all you need is a $350,000 condo or a $450,000 townhouse? Developers know this and are taking advantage of it. They can make way more building a cluster of condos than a handful of single-family units.
And there are exceptions, such as the current story from Pointe-Claire, where a tiny old strip mall was approved to be demolished and replaced by a development of 24 townhouses. The neighbours objected, claiming that 24 townhouses would “overwhelm” the neighbourhood. So the approval was revoked and instead there will be 12 single-family units built. (I think the people of Pointe-Claire must be easily overwhelmed.)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pointe-claire-shuts-down-walton-townhouse-project-1.5083620
Faiz Imam 18:08 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
oh yeah. I started seeing this a decade ago, but there a lot more in the past 3-5 years.
That PC story made me so mad though. I actually have a similar issue going on in Brossard where a grocery store has been sitting empty for almost 15 years. A developer wanted to make a couple block apartments, and local residents shut it down due to concerns over “excess traffic” Despite the fact that its on a pretty large street that is not particularly busy.
It really sucks. We need density to break though the catch 22 of suburbia. And stories time those are major disappointments.
At least, Im aware that the municipality is very much in favor of more density and their master plan is really well made to promote it, so in the long run i’m hopeful this is a rare occurrence.
BB 18:36 on 2019-04-05 Permalink
Excessive rent control means scarcity of affordable rental building stock in good condition. Investing in rental stock and maintaining it over the years is not a great proposition for most people. Who wants to deal with the hassle of problem tenants who pay a pittance, wreck your place and you can’t get rid of easily because the rental board process is stacked against owners? There are good tenants out there but also many bad ones.
dhomas 08:06 on 2019-04-07 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz as much as I agree with the sentiment that medication, and to an extent housing, should not be priced out of range of regular people, your approach here seems a bit off. You make it seem like that was a direct quote by Martin Shkreli, but he never said this exact sentence.
thomas 12:24 on 2019-04-07 Permalink
Yes, plus Martin Shkrelin is currently serving a 7 year prison sentence for fraud so not sure there is any value in his words.
Raymond Lutz 07:57 on 2019-04-08 Permalink
Eh! les gars, l’humour et la satire, vous connaissez? à la lecture du 1er commentaire de Kevin, il est évident que j’ai repris ses deux exactes phrases et que j’y ai remplacé “big cities” par “medication”… et qu’il est donc impossible que Shkrelin en ait été l’auteur. Et, @thomas, qu’il soit en prison ne change rien à la valeur de ses déclarations: sa trajectoire est un cas d’étude du plus grand intérêt pour ceux qui s’intéressent aux dysfonctions du capitalisme.