Press review of late April

In this end of April, CORPIQ is pleased to have received multiple mentions in the province's various media. In particular, the will to bring an amendment to the Civil Code of Quebec on the transfer of lease. Among the other subjects that caught our attention, let's mention the interventions of several actors representing different industries who put forward their distinct vision of the housing shortage problem.

Lease assignments: 25% of landlords affected

As reported in a article from Journal de Montréal, lease assignment is a tactic used by some tenants to control the price of rent. Thus, when the tenant is released from his or her lease, he or she has the power to impose a new tenant on the landlord who cannot refuse this candidate, unless there is a serious reason, such as credit problems. As we heard during the audio interview from Radio-Canada with the general manager of CORPIQ, some tenants participate in a form of militancy in order to exert an influence on the price of the rents by assigning their lease, or even by selling it to the next tenant, in order to prevent the landlord from taking back the dwelling and to lease it again at an increased price that reflects the current market. We could hear CORPIQ’s desire to change the Civil Code so that lease assignments are prohibited when a landlord releases a tenant from his obligations, without penalty.

 

Lack of housing

To fill the housing shortage, more than 100,000 housing units must be built in Quebec. In a APCHQ statement, their Director of Economic Services maintains that this will require an additional 10,000 homes to be built annually to the 50,000 that are already being built over a 10-year period.

With respect to the federal government's response to the budget, we note the creation of the TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account for First-Time Home Buyers). As read in this article from La Presse, $4 billion will be injected to encourage housing construction, and the TFIPC will help Canadians under the age of 40 to contribute up to $8,000 per year for a maximum of $40,000 towards the purchase of a first home.

The Urban Development Institute (UDI), of which CORPIQ is a co-signatory, published an article encouraging municipalities to exercise more leadership in taking on urban densification projects. The UDI reminds us that the government should have an ambitious plan to promote the construction of as many housing units as possible.

As for the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, it would like to alleviate the vacancy of the downtown area, notably with a digital platform which would allow businesses to lease their vacant space. 

In the same vein, the federal government is considering using space deemed surplus for conversion to housing. It says in a Le Devoir article, that a preliminary report within six months will determine the actual office space needs of employees. It is anticipated that nearly $6 billion in savings could be realized over the next five years.

In addition, a Le Devoir article highlights the particularity of many Montreal boroughs by emphasizing the importance of plexes and alleys. This best-kept secret is the recipe for an urban plan that favours a mix of social strata, density to allow an efficient public transportation network, and the harmonious atmosphere of the alleys that encourage human contact.

Finally, one of the causes of the lack of housing is short-term rentals for recreational and tourist purposes. For example, we mention in this article how the Airbnb platform is at the heart of housing repossessions, and that sometimes, it is the tenant himself who submits the rented accommodation to a client without the landlord being aware of it. CORPIQ was contacted and stated that this phenomenon causes great inconveniences for landlords, both in terms of noise pollution and situations of insalubrity in properties.

 

Insalubrity

On a less cheerful note, the City of Montreal is struggling to meet the target of fines for insalubrity in Montreal. CORPIQ was questioned in a article from Le Devoir on this subject, to which the general manager retorted that "in the majority of cases, insalubrity is caused by the behaviour of tenants and not because of the building".

It must be said that the City of Montreal has given itself the ambitious project of setting up a "Responsible Landlord Certification" to reduce the number of cases of landlords managing unhealthy buildings. A public consultation was held on April 20 where participants could submit questions in this first phase of consultations. The second phase will take place in June and will also include the issue of the rent roll.