Buildings have costs beyond mortgage, especially ones that are old enough to be paid off.
I support rent control, but “no sudden shifts in rent” rent control, not “rent must be frozen in amber and can only be raised below inflation levels” rent control. The market changes over time. Otherwise we get the “f you I got mine” problems we have with homeowners, where nobody has to care about new people looking for housing because every existing owner or renter can ignore market reality.
If we want to eat the rich, just tax them more. I like Jagmeet’s idea to increase cap gains inclusion to 3/4 instead of 1/2.
Don’t worry, there isn’t a rent control anywhere in Canada that’s “frozen in amber”. I’m reminded of the economist Lawrence Summers who gave an example of worrying about the wrong thing in policy: “I’m overweight and I need to lose weight. It’s true that if I lose too much, I could starve to death and die, but that’s not my problem.”
Rent being too low is not our problem.
Rent controlled apartments are still capped at 2.5% increase per year.
Yes, while anybody who is not in a rent controlled unit is facing a bloodbath, plenty of people are seeing their rents go down once you figure in inflation. It’s just that “dog doesn’t bite man” is even less of a news story than “dog bites man”.
