Members of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities voted 76 to 72 to pass a resolution to explore vacancy control in the province.
Victoria Councillor Sarah Potts put forward the resolution, as a way to control rental prices in the province.
Vacancy control is a measure that would put limits on how much rent can raise between tenancies.
“Some of the reasoning behind [the resolution] is, there was just a recent article saying again, that Vancouver and Victoria rents have increased by 20 per cent in the last six months, and this is a trend that has been going on for quite some time,” Potts said in an interview with CHEK News on Monday.
“So this is an opportunity to ask the province to explore what a vacancy control could look like for the province, understanding that there’s lots of different ways to apply this, and it’s happening in lots of different places.”
The resolution asks the B.C. government to find a system of vacancy control that would work for the province, and Potts says it would be important that any measures implemented would work for landlords as well as renters.
David Hutniak with Landlord BC is opposed to the idea of vacancy control in the province.
“Vacancy controls means that at tenant turnover, rents cannot increase. Basically, unlike the current structure where when a tenant leaves the landlord has an opportunity to upgrade the unit to make sure it’s safe and healthy and reflect the cost of doing that in the new rent,” Hutniak said to CHEK on Monday.
“Whereas in that vacancy control scenario, if someone had to be living on unit for 30 years and left the new tenant would pay the same rent as that person was paying as a 30 year tenant.”
Emily Rogers with the Together Against Poverty Society says vacancy control would help with affordability.
“It’s hard to overstate the influence of vacancy control would make on our day-to-day lives, as tenant advocates,” Rogers said to CHEK on Monday.
“I would estimate that approximately 25 per cent of our eviction cases would not exist if we had vacancy control. That’s just an estimate. But we hear day in and day out that tenants feel they’re being evicted because there is an economic incentive for the landlords to replace them.”
The next step for the resolution is to be voted on at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in September.
If approved at the UBCM, then the resolution would be sent to the provincial government to respond to.
This story has been updated with the vote at the AVICC meeting. The original version of the story is preserved below.
In an effort to help control sky-rocketing rent prices, a Victoria councillor is putting forward a resolution at the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) convention to explore vacancy control.
Coun. Sarah Potts was asked to bring forward the resolution by the city’s Renters’ Advisory Committee to ask the provincial government to explore vacancy control.
The 2022 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation rental market report found that in Greater Victoria “Rents for vacant units and newer units constructed after 2018 were $300-$400 more expensive than occupied units. Over the past few years, this premium has been expanding…and discouraged long-term renters from moving. The turnover rate declined further in 2021.”
According to the motion by the Renters’ Advisory Committee, this means that rent prices are rising faster than inflation, and faster than the provincially set allowable rent increases.
Vacancy control ties the rent to the unit, so when a tenant moves out, they are limited to increasing rent by a set amount, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“Some of the reasoning behind [the resolution] is, there was just a recent article saying again, that Vancouver and Victoria rents have increased by 20 per cent in the last six months, and this is a trend that has been going on for quite some time,” Potts said in an interview with CHEK News.
“So this is an opportunity to ask the province to explore what a vacancy control could look like for the province, understanding that there’s lots of different ways to apply this, and it’s happening in lots of different places.”
Potts said the resolution does not specify details on what vacancy control would look like to allow the province to find a solution that would work the best in B.C.
“We would leave this to the province…to check for options with their expertise that would best serve the various communities across the province,” Potts said. “So really just looking at what is possible, what is another tool you can add to address the housing crisis?”
Emily Rogers, director of operations with Together Against Poverty Society (TAPS) says she believes vacancy control is a key step to addressing the increasing rent prices.
“I think it’s an essential step towards stabilizing the housing market and giving working class people a chance of making it making ends meet in British Columbia,” she said. “I’m so glad that our municipalities are looking at this and I hope they send a strong message to the province that there is support for vacancy control amongst Vancouver Island and coastal communities.”
David Hutniak, CEO with Landlord BC says he is opposed to bringing vacancy control to the province.
“Vacancy controls means that at tenant turnover, rents cannot increase. Basically, unlike the current structure where when a tenant leaves the landlord has an opportunity to upgrade the unit to make sure it’s safe and healthy and reflect the cost of doing that in the new rent,” Hutniak said.
“Whereas in that vacancy control scenario, if someone had to be living on unit for 30 years and left the new tenant would pay the same rent as that person was paying as a 30 year tenant.”
Potts points to new legislation which allows landlords to apply to increase rents above the set limit if they incur capital expenditures or expenses to the residential property, and says this could be used if a landlord did repairs or upgrades on a unit between tenancies.
Hutniak says this legislation has limits on what can be included that do not cover all the costs of turning over a unit.
“While it’s a positive step, it hardly allows us to recover the real cost of the substantial investments made, it’s a portion,” he said. “It’s intended to be done for like if you’re doing a roof on a building or some major investments, very specific criteria, it’s not replacing or cleaning carpet in a single unit, those aren’t eligible under that.”
Rogers said the Residential Tenancy Act requires landlords to maintain their units.
“I want to decouple the concept of making profit from the idea that the landlord is responsible for maintaining their building. By the very virtue of being a landlord, the property owner has a legal responsibility to provide housing that is maintained and suitable for human habitation,” Rogers said.
“That responsibility exists now under the law in section 32 of the Residential Tenancy Act, and that responsibility will continue to exist if vacancy control is brought into place. I think that the landlord’s responsibility to maintain their building is somewhat irrelevant to the concept of vacancy control.”
Hutniak says a better solution to high rent prices would be to build more rental units.
“The root cause of the rental housing challenges we are experiencing is the chronic shortage of supply of rental housing and especially purpose-built rental housing,”Hutniak said. “It is untenable for investments in rental housing to be constantly jeopardized with every municipal election cycle when these investments will provide homes for thousands of British Columbians for many decades to come.”
He says the province is taking steps to address housing supply, including the recent announcement by David Eby, the minister responsible for housing, that the government is preparing to remove some housing permitting powers from municipalities’ hands to speed up the process of building new housing.
Potts says that it would be important that any vacancy control measures implemented be beneficial both for tenants and landlords.
“I just want to be really clear with a policy like this, we have to make sure that it works with everybody and I do believe that there is a way to do that that landlords are supported and tenants are supported,” Potts said. “I get calls from elderly folks who are renting who don’t feel secure, who know that a real estate investment trust has taken over their building and that they are really, really fearful of being displaced.”
“And then on the other side, we hear from landlords who are worried about being able to maintain their buildings and be able to compete in this market. We have to strike the balance. It has to be able to work for both and I do believe that there is a way to do that.”
Potts says the current rental market model incentivizes real estate as an investment.
“I think that’s an important thing to note within this is that unregulated rent increases incentivize the growth of real estate investment trusts,” she said. “So they approach rental housing as a financial asset, they increase profits for investors by displacing renters who occupy long-held affordable apartments and replace them with new renters at a much higher market rate. That is their model, and we’re seeing a lot of that in Victoria.”
Rogers said at TAPS, they frequently hear from tenants who believe they are being evicted so the landlord can charge higher rent to a new tenant.
“It’s hard to overstate the influence of vacancy control would make on our day-to-day lives, as tenant advocates,” Rogers said.
“I would estimate that approximately 25 per cent of our eviction cases would not exist if we had vacancy control. That’s just an estimate. But we hear day in and day out that tenants feel they’re being evicted because there is an economic incentive for the landlords to replace them.”
Prince Edward Island is currently the only province in Canada with vacancy control.
The resolution will be discussed at the AVICC convention, which runs from April 1-3.
If approved at the convention, it will then go to the Union of BC Municipalities convention in September.
The UBCM will then vote on the motion, and if approved will send the recommendation to the provincial government for its consideration.
A previous version of this story said Manitoba has vacancy control. Manitoba’s controls only apply to units that are older than 20 years or with rent below $1,570 per month, and the story has been updated. CHEK News regrets the error.
Laura Brougham
