this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
0 points (50.0% liked)

Canada

7106 readers
563 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Communities


🍁 Meta


πŸ—ΊοΈ Provinces / Territories


πŸ™οΈ Cities / Regions


πŸ’ SportsHockey

Football (NFL)

  • List of All Teams: unknown

Football (CFL)

  • List of All Teams: unknown

Baseball

Basketball

Soccer


πŸ’» Universities


πŸ’΅ Finance / Shopping


πŸ—£οΈ Politics


🍁 Social & Culture


Rules

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage:

https://lemmy.ca


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The landlord had told them he wanted to raise the rent to $3,500 and when they complained he decided to raise it to $9,500.

β€œWe know that our building is not rent controlled and this was something we were always worried about happening and there is no way we can afford $9,500 per month," Yumna Farooq said.

top 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It shows that "no rent control" basically means "your landlord can throw you out at any time without notice" by raising rent to a ludicrous amount. It completely undermines all other tenant protections. Even conservatives should be supporting at least modest rent controls to prevent cases like this.

[–] mindcruzer@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yes, rent control, our panacea.

Negative Effects on Supply: Rent control can potentially lead to housing shortages over the long term. When landlords are unable to raise rents to cover maintenance and operating costs or to generate a reasonable return on their investment, they may have less incentive to maintain or invest in their properties. This can lead to a deterioration in the quality of rental housing and a reduction in the overall supply of rental units. In some cases, landlords may convert rental properties into other uses, such as condominiums or commercial spaces, further reducing the supply of rental housing.

Inefficiencies and Reduced Mobility: Rent control can lead to inefficiencies in the housing market. Tenants in rent-controlled units may have less incentive to move, even if their housing needs change, because they want to keep their low rents. This reduced mobility can make it harder for new renters to find suitable housing.

Selective Impact: Rent control often applies to older buildings or units built before a certain date. This can create disparities in rent levels between newer and older housing stock, potentially discouraging the construction of new rental units and leading to further imbalances in the housing market.

A short term band-aid that causes long term problems. Government price controls are a tale as old as time.

[–] ClumZy@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We have rent control in Paris, France. Appartments are still expensive, but I pay 1600 euros per month for 60sqm in the center of one of the liveliest cities in the world.

Rent control WORKS.

[–] mindcruzer@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s inevitable that any type of price control will lead to supply/demand issues. That’s great it worked out for you but it is well documented that rent control harms rental markets long term. Anyone who disagrees is in denial.

[–] violetraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And for the places without rent control with supply/demand issues...

[–] mindcruzer@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago

Yes, multiple things can affect rental supply, not just government price controls.

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jesus, I'm getting it from both ends here, somebody else is dumping on me for suggesting that a rent-control system that's a few points above inflation so that landlords could adapt to the market without abruptly bankrupting their tenants was somehow a reasonable compromise.

I'm not arguing for extreme rent-control policies, just that no rent control is bad because it lets landlords write their own eviction laws.

Peg it at like 2.5% or 5% per year above inflation and you can't use it as a sudden backdoor eviction but you also let landlords adapt to market reality over time.

Capping rents might be stupid for all the reasons economists say, but putting a damper on sudden price shifts is just being humane.

[–] SinAdjetivos@beehaw.org -1 points 1 year ago

The "humane" thing would be to make any and all rent seeking behavior very explicitly illegal, but that's unlikely to happen.

[–] extant@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most conservatives are middle class small business owners and landlords, this is why they are always supportive of "small government" it's just a dog whistle for unregulated market.

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're not generally cartoonish evil, I'm sure they agree that some tenant protections against sudden eviction are a good thing, and allowing unlimited rent hikes completely obliterates all that.

[–] PaganDude@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're not generally cartoonish evil

You really need to look at how they're talking on landlord forums and such, the way they speak about tenants. Reality will remove this naive idea from your mind.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You mean, worse than you speak of landlords?

[–] Rambi@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

False dicotomy. People talk shit about landlords because of how they're treated by them. Landlords talk shit about tenants because they're pieces of shit which is the same reason they treat tenants like shit.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 1 year ago

And how are they treated by them, exactly? Asked to pay for the space provided?

[–] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Landlords are parasites on society.

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can't afford to buy. If not for landlords who would you rent from? Where would you live?

The idea that if there were no landlords you'd be able to afford a house is absurd.
I agree corporations should be limited in how many single.family homes they are allowed to buy but this whole "all landlords are scum ". Schtick makes u look pathetic and ignorant of the facts.

[–] SlikPikker@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We don't need Capitalism any longer. We can do better.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Capitalism is the only reason you exist.

[–] SlikPikker@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They said, not even knowing where I'm from. There are people who would be dead without Soviet Authoritarianism.

And somehow that's not what I'm advocating.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

A LOT MORE people would be alive and well without Soviet Authoritarianism or any other flavour of socialism/communism.

[–] Transcendant@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same thing is happening to me right now (UK). LL inherited a portfolio of mortgage-free properties a few years back, immediately jacked the rent up on them all. I tried to haggle what imo was an egregious rent increase (notified middle of the year after asking for a minor repair), we agreed on a price then he served me notice to quit; via the letting agent, not a peep or thanks from the LL after I've put ~Β£90000 into his familys' accounts over 13 yrs.

Of course, I can pay someone elses mortgage, but when I apply to a bank for one myself, I can't afford it.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can pay someone elses mortgage, but when I apply to a bank for one myself, I can’t afford it.

But when you can't afford it any longer, the landlord is free to replace you with someone who temporarily can. That's the difference!

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bank can't do the same thing?

[–] Xavier@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if there are information or anonymised statistics regarding the portion of elected representatives, senators and members of the judiciary from municipal, provincial and federal bodies/institutions that own more than a property (principal residence).

How many properties? What type of properties (from residential single family to high rise residential appartments/condominium, from empty/rundown/abandoned farmhouses/buildings to unused farm/land, etc…) What purpose do they have for those properties? Do those properties generate some kind of revenue? If so, how much? How is the revenue generated?

While thinking about it, how much of all properties in Canada are tied up behind a corporate veil by companies/fondations/trusts and various legal entities? Are there statistics on that?

There are too many unknowns and legal protections behind those unknown to be able to make a clear picture of the housing crisis.

I don't want the scapegoat excuse of too much RED TAPE to build new housing or that IT'S THE IMMIGRANTS and the FOREIGN WORKERS or FOREIGN INVESTORS/SPECULATORS took all our housing. That's too easy of a excuse to avoid the real and difficult work of understanding this whole mess.

I want real data, not proxy data. Full information on every transfer of property; from whom to whom, by which financial institution, for exactly how much, timespan elapsed between transfer of ownership, who is the mortgage holder if a loan is involved, renovation details if there has been any, every inspection report and details should always be public and attached to the property for the life of the property as a historical snapshot of the property, etc…

It's not that hard to implement these data gathering services but there are always deeply vested interests that would do everything in their power to discourage such endeavors and make up any excuse to avoid providing it.

Anyways, sorry this became a long rambling rant on my part.

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And what if we grind out all those numbers and there's nothing magical? What if it really is just supply and demand?

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago

Then you have become the first person ever to find the fabled Golden Goose who shits out money for the rich, no strings attached.