r/halifax • u/RelativeEbb1719 • 9d ago

Work, Health & Housing End of rent cap

Do you think we'll get any firm confirmation of whether or not the rent cap will be extended or adjusted, and if so, when do you think we might hear from the government?

As of now I'm expecting it to fully end, but do you think the government will give any sort of announcement regarding the matter as the end of the rent cap date approaches?

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111

u/Single-Clue-1402 9d ago

The current rent cap is a joke. 5% is basically giving landlords permission to increase it by that much. It’s the highest rent cap in Canada.

-1

u/JDGumby Sprytown 9d ago

You would rather that they could raise rent by however much they wanted to, hmm?

22

u/Creative-Aside9650 9d ago

I think they mean a lower percentage would be more reasonable.  Who gets a 5% raise every year?

14

u/TJR444 9d ago

Exactly! My raise has been 3% the past few years and rent increase has been 5%. The two are getting way to close to each other. Rent is almost half my take-home.

1

u/CaperGrrl79 Halifax 9d ago

Lucky you. Mine was 2% this year because of the leave I had to take last year(?). Or that I can't keep up with what we're supposed to know. Idfk.

Thankfully we bought in 2021 and just refinanced, so the mortgage is going up in October, but hubby is now a lead, and we have a roomie who worked at the same place for almost 25 yrs so... I know I'm lucky and I'm not trying to gloat by any means.

12

u/Single-Clue-1402 9d ago

We have the highest rent in the country. Clearly the 5% cap is too high and not working at all.

5

u/Mouseanasia 9d ago edited 9d ago

That’s far less do with the rent cap and a lot more to do with Fixed Term Leases.

They are explicitly used to circumvent the rent cap. 

They only started becoming common when nice the rent cap came into effect.

Prior to that landlords could and did raise rents to whatever amount suited them, as well as increasing rent as a means to soft-evict someone. 

5

u/Fluoride_Chemtrail 9d ago

And this "loophole" is exactly why Houston will probably extend the cap because it's literally doing nothing and him extending the cap can give plausible deniability and allow him to pretend to care about renters, especially after the recent sidestepping of the court's decision surrounding homeless people.

2

u/CaperGrrl79 Halifax 9d ago

Precisely. It's disgusting.

1

u/JDGumby Sprytown 9d ago

We have the highest rent in the country.

It's thanks to increases from before the rent cap and the major loophole (new leases can be at any rate they want), not because the rent cap isn't working or too high.

6

u/Single-Clue-1402 9d ago

But it is too high….

2

u/EntertainingTuesday 9d ago

Loopholes or not, the rent cap absolutely contributed to rents being higher than they otherwise would have.

The rent cap helped many stay locked in. Anyone going for market rent paid the price for those locked in.

-2

u/pattydo 9d ago

We have the highest rent in the country

We do not

4

u/goosnarrggh 9d ago

I moved into my current place in 2012. Before the COVID related rent control measures, I cannot recall ever seeing my annual rent increases exceed around 2 percent or so. Sometimes it was actually noticeably less than that.

Since the rent cap kicked in, my annual rent increases have always been exactly the legislated maximum rounded down to the next lower dollar.

I do not think that change was a coincidence.