New housing for our city?

[Seeler]

Earlier this past week there was a big write up in our local newspaper about City Council giving the go-ahead for two new apartment buildings to be built adjacent to a large public park. While not high-rises but big-city standards, they will be seven or eight stories high in an area of single family homes and duplexes. They will be luxury apartments, with one, two, or three bedrooms and two bathrooms, high ceilings, and lots of parking space for tenants who own more than one vehicle. And the rents will be far above what I can afford. In the last decade or so the city has proudly okayed quite a few similar buildings often changing bylaws to accommodate the developers.

A few days later the paper reported that the city is one of the lowest vacancy rates for rentals in Canada.

And now they are focusing on the homelessness.

While being! Provincial capital city has many well-paid positions in government, the two universities, and the professions, we also have many people working in the service industry, often part-time or temporary who have a difficult time meeting expenses and who often live in inadequate housing or pay much of their income for a decent place to live. And we also have those who are unable to find work or to hold a decent job. These are the homeless.


It's cold out there! The city does have a few shelters where people can find a bed for the night, but they are usually filled to capacity at this time of year. We also have temporary emergency shelters during the coldest months of the year. They too are often filled. Some churches allow a few people to sleep the night. And and then there are the people who have no shelter but wander the streets trying to keep from freezing and trying to get a few hours sleep by the ATM at the bank or in an abandoned car or makeshift tent.

So we have a very low vacancy rate, homeless people, and the city is involved in building of luxury apartments. Is there something wrong with this picture?

 

[Northwind]

Something is very wrong with this picture. Sadly, it's a picture that is all over our country.

Ontario had a system once where apartment buildings had to have a percentage of units that were rent geared to income. I don't think this still exists. It was a good way to increase spaces without creating ghettos. We had someone on our floor who was in a rent to income unit. That person was no different from the rest of the tenants and fit right in.

I believe the apartment building I mentioned has been converted to condos. That's one phenomenon that is reducing the number of rentals these days.

 

[Waterfall]

I actually don't have a problem with new builds and the developer renting apartments out for whatever the market will bear. BUT I do have a problem with existing rentals when it comes to rent control. I don't know about your province seeler, but here in Ontario, when someone moves out of any unit, the landlord can increase the rent to whatever they want.....so for example if a tenant moves out and they were renting the unit for even $1,000.00, the landlord is allowed to jack the rent up to $1400 or whatever they can rent it out for, because rent controls don't apply as they would if the tenant had continued to rent for the next year. It would be fair to say that older buildings were more than likely purchased at a fairly reasonable price years ago and and rent increases remaining in place should be sufficient even with repairs needed IMO due to interest rates that have fallen over the past 25 years and a much lower purchase price.
I do think in Toronto, they are building a new building downtown, that will contain units that will be 20% lower than the average Toronto rents to accommodate lower income families, and while it's going to be lower, it will still be a hefty sum for those making minimum wage.
Sometimes I think the reason that rent controls have been removed, is because the politicians have their own investments and so do their influential friends.....but I have no proof of that, just suspicion.

 

[Waterfall]

Also, more and more landlords are giving notice to tenants in order to do renovations so they can increase the rents.