B.C. to see highest maximum allowable rent increase since 2004

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Be prepared to possibly pay up to 4.5 per cent more for rent next year.

That is the approved maximum allowable rent increase for 2019, which was announced on Friday.

It’s based on the B.C. Consumer Price Index and formula for rent increases. It’s calculated as the inflation rate plus two per cent.

Many British Columbians struggling with high rents and low vacancy rates in places like Vancouver say it’s hard to imagine this planned hike will help them.

When asked how the housing minister feels about this increase — which is the biggest since 2004 — Selina Robinson says the province is working hard to make life more affordable and address the housing crisis.

“We’ve made a historic $7 billion commitment to affordable housing over 10 years and we’re still working,” Robinson says in an emailed statement to NEWS 1130. “We’ve enhanced both the Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters program and the Rental Assistance Program, which help low-income seniors and families to stay in their homes and communities. We’ve also eliminated a fixed-term lease loophole and a geographic rent increase clause that had left too many renters facing exorbitant rent increases. As part of our larger investment in affordable housing, we’re also building modular housing that will help those who were without housing to finally have somewhere secure to call home.”

“While we have already done a lot, there is still more to do.”

She adds “Our Rental Housing Task Force spent a lot of time this spring and summer listening to people’s frustrations and their ideas on ways to further improve fairness, security and affordability.”

She defers the topic of rent increases to the task force, which “will be sharing their recommendations later this year, and the issue of annual rent increases and rent control is part of their review,” Robinson says.

Landlords are allowed to increase rent once a year.

So that means if you pay $1,000 a month in rent, you may have to shell out an extra $45 each month if your landlord chooses to impose the maximum percentage.

By law, any landlord needs to give three months’ notice for any rent increase.

Housing advocate Justin Fung with Housing Action for Local Taxpayers (HALT) says this increase is surprising, given the four per cent increase the year before.

“We’re in the middle of a housing crisis right now and I don’t think most people have made an extra eight and a half per cent in income over those last two year. So I think it just makes life ever harder for those of us who are renting.”

Housing affordability was one of the B.C. NDP’s major election platforms.

Fung says this increase speaks to the need for more drastic action.

“Whether that’s demand-side measures or more non-market measures, for that matter,” he tells NEWS 1130. “I think we’re seeing that market rents are continuing to go up. So I think this really puts the pressure on us thinking about truly affordable social housing and no longer redefining the goal posts of what affordable social housing is.”

Fung believes a 4.5 per cent maximum allowable rent increase means we’ll see more people leaving expensive hubs because people are struggling to make ends meet.

He says that also means pulling families and friends apart.

“People are going to ask themselves, ‘is it still worth it to live in Vancouver when you’re paying that much more for rent?'”

According to PadMapper, the average rent for a one bedroom around Vancouver as of August, 2018, was $2,000 dollars.

In 2017, the maximum allowable rent increase was 3.7 per cent.

The percentage for this year is four per cent.

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