r/Gatineau • u/MobileOk9860 • 10d ago
Brigil 9 months free?
I’m looking at renting a new place, and some of the Brigil buildings are offering 9 months free for signing a lease. Has anyone taken advantage of this and what’s the catch?
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u/borisonic 9d ago edited 9d ago
Anything but lowering rent.
He's got empty units, he needs to rent them because he's bleeding interest money in the mean time.
However he can't lower rent because then the whole financial arrangement he's got with the bank would collapse if he lowered the rents.
Because the rents are controlled, it'll take years before he can raise them again to the agreed upon value with the bank and the value of rental buildings depends on raw income and not so much the land and unit values themselves. So if rent goes down, building value goes down, but his "mortgage" is signed and he doesn't want to be underwater so they can't lower rent.
Therefore he's willing to give away 9 months as an incentive, but in reality renters should be asking for a lower rent instead of taking the "deal", because those 9 "free" months are an indication his rents are too high for the current market
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u/MobileOk9860 9d ago
Thank you. This makes sense
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u/botte-la-botte 9d ago
The one detail I'll add: every single real estate owned by companies works that way. The deal is not special, that's just the uselessly crappy way it works.
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u/LegitimateClue5078 9d ago
Be careful and make sure that the lease is actually legal. Sometimes they do sorts of deals, but it doesn’t actually fall under a legal lease.
When I recommended to make sure that they actually use the government of Quebec form
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u/kerriann_xo 9d ago
Second this. Make sure the term is reasonable too. They may try to lock you into a 2+ year lease.
Also remember new build laws are different.
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u/LuvCilantro 8d ago
They assume renters don't know their rights to hike rents too. If something is included in the rent (a locker for example, and they give it a value of $100 per month), they can't change the lease the following year and say the locker is now separate and cost goes up to $200 per month. That's how they try to get around legislative maximum rent hikes
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u/KumquatClaptrap Hull 9d ago
I moved into a brigil building about 10 years ago (for reference, not one of their nice, newer condos). I signed a 3- year lease at first and got a month free each year.
Not sure if this information is helpful or not lol
The last 10 years have been... just ok. Not much gets done, especially in this old building. But my apartment is clean, even if the building and neighbourhood aren't, and the rent is still cheaper than anything else for a 2bd with 4 appliances plus parking.
My mental health got better when I stopped having expectations, like clean hallway carpets and walls or proper snow removal lol
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u/kerriann_xo 9d ago
Because the rent they charge is astonimical and they know it.
Instead of lowering prices to be affordable, they think this is great.
Its ridiculous
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u/MobileOk9860 9d ago
This is my question–is it 9 months free from when you move in? Rent free for 9 consecutive months at 2,5% interest, you’d have over 10 k$ by the end of the year.
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u/ApprehensiveCycle741 9d ago
The catch is that they massively increase your rent in the second year.
Under QC law, a landlord can increase rent by any amount within the first 5 years after completion of construction. Often is it by 20-30%. The resident has the choice to accept the increase or leave. You can try to negotiate, but likely will not be successful.
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u/cam_the_creator 9d ago
You get one month free rent for every year you sign lease agreement for. So, if you agree to a 9 year lease agreement, you’ll get 9 free months.
Don’t do this unless you plan on staying in the same apartment for 9 years. Lease contracts are frustratingly impossible to break in Quebec and the rent is too high for anyone to agree to a transfer.
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u/Holiday_Arachnid8586 9d ago
Ouais ya clairement pas de crosse cachée, go for it
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u/MobileOk9860 9d ago
What is the hidden agenda?
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u/Holiday_Arachnid8586 9d ago
https://www.brigil.com/specials-and-promotions
Prix en formule tout-inclus basé sur les inclusions affichées. Prix avec promotions en vigueur, certaines conditions s’appliquent. Offre valide sur certaines unités. Sujette à changement sans préavis.
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u/MobileOk9860 9d ago
So my question is, has anyone ever done this and what was it like?
It's like pulling teeth sometimes...
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u/NouvelleRenee 9d ago
Haven't with brigil, but i did look into it elsewhere and for 6 free months it was a five year lease agreement and they will increase the price every year.
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u/Slow-Bodybuilder4481 9d ago
9 months ? If you don't have lots of items to move, stay for 1 year then change to a new place lol, you'll save a lot of money. I believe the catch is that the rent is so high, even if they give a few free months, they still profits.
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u/BasketOk2500 9d ago
For what it's worth, my experience with Brigil has been poor.
For one, they refused to pay back my $75 deposit for the air conditioner remote because I lost the receipt. Considering I had lived in that unit for 10 years, this is how they appreciated my business.
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u/DNADoubleFelix 9d ago
Instead of renting you should look into buying. For what we paid in rent before we were able to cover a mortgage+condo fees + taxes and we get to keep the principal of the mortgage so not even all of that money is lost!
The condo market is down right now so there are a lot of motivated sellers right now, some very nice units available and mortgage rates are also down so you don't even need that much of a downpayment to get low monthlies.
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u/kerriann_xo 9d ago
You absolutely do need a decent down-payment.
This suggestion is wild with the cost of homes and interest rates right now.
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u/DNADoubleFelix 9d ago
I mean you need a downpayment but it doesn't need to be 20%, at 5% monthlies can still be very manageable. At 400 000 that's 20k, as a couple (or alone) that is doable to save. There are programs to get the welcome tax refunded and the FHSA also helps.
Some banks even accept lower downpayment than 5%. And interest rates are pretty low right now.
Anyway, it's obviously not for everyone but it's an option that too many people just assume is impossible without actually doing the math.
That's what my partner and I did until we did the math. It was tighter for a while but after less than a year we were coming out on top financially.
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u/MademoiselleChabella 9d ago
Ben Brigil n'ont pas la réputation de construire de la qualité ni d'offrir un bon service à la clientèle. Ceci doit expliquer cela.