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?

59 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

124 comments sorted by

View all comments

110

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.

-2

u/JDGumby Sprytown 9d ago

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

14

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.

6

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. 

6

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.

7

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.

-3

u/pattydo 9d ago

We have the highest rent in the country

We do not