For sustainable and affordable housing: let's remove barriers to renovating the housing stock

Faced with the urgent need to act for a sustainable and accessible energy transition, the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec warns of the urgent need to renovate the rental real estate stock. The state of rental real estate reflects the difficulties encountered throughout the value-creation chain, between the economic context and financial and regulatory constraints. A Léger survey highlights the main issues to be resolved in order to boost renovation investment. Ensuring the longevity of Quebec's housing stock is essential to meeting the needs of tenants and landlords alike.

Considering its strategic role in society, the building sector requires a global approach, with incentives for energy-efficient renovation of existing rental property stock. According to the Léger survey, 59% of landlords interviewed would like to carry out major renovation work to make their homes more energy efficient. According to the landlords surveyed, the most pressing renovation projects include replacing doors and windows and insulating them to improve thermal insulation, renovating kitchens and bathrooms, and covering floors.

While such work is costly, especially when carried out late, several obstacles have been identified to enable landlords to carry out renovation work:

• 55% consider that the rent increases authorized by the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) for this work will not enable them to recoup their investment adequately and reasonably.
• 77% claim that their current rental income is insufficient to enable them to carry out the renovations needed to improve the condition of their homes. This is especially true for young landlords (for less than 15 years).
• Difficulties in accessing labor are holding back renovations: 55% of landlords would like to hire multi-skilled workers for several small jobs at once, and 46% would like to be able to access non-unionized labor as in the case of owner-occupied home renovations.

Faced with the need to protect the housing stock, solutions could be rapidly deployed:

• Changing rent-setting rules to recoup the expense through monthly rental costs (66% of landlords surveyed).
• The introduction of a subsidy (53% of landlords surveyed) or a tax credit on the expense (50% of landlords surveyed).

These incentives could be based on the energy gains achieved by the renovations.

At a meeting of the housing ecosystem on Tuesday, November 12, CORPIQ intends to convey this message and initiate a dialogue to collectively identify solutions to ensure the sustainability of the rental housing stock for the benefit of all. Renovations will help improve living comfort for tenants, while reducing heating costs, which are usually borne by them.

“This study has enabled us to confirm a need that we had identified as a priority. Ensuring the longevity of the rental housing stock is now a social issue, and we are convinced that landlords are part of the solution, alongside all stakeholders”, says CORPIQ spokesman Éric Sansoucy.