'I'm grateful': Tenant facing $300 hike welcomes rent cap

Gwen Wain received notice of a 40 per cent increase in her rent earlier this month, and is relieved to hear the New Brunswick government is adopting rules that will reduce that to a maximum of 3.8 per cent, at least for this year.

"I'm grateful," Wain said Tuesday. "It's big news. I wasn't expecting any help for renters."

In an about-face Tuesday, Finance Minister Ernie Steeves announced in his budget speech that the province was dropping its opposition to capping rents, and for the next year will limit increases charged to tenants to 3.8 per cent.

"Market conditions remain difficult for renters," Steeves said in announcing the rent cap.

"Despite record levels of multi-unit construction and a growing supply of rental units, the vacancy rate continues to fall, and rents continue to climb."

Wain has lived in the same Saint John apartment building on Pitt Street for the last four years, and was worried when it recently sold to a new landlord.  

She said she "burst into tears" when she was given formal notice her rent would be jumping $300 in September, from $750 to $1,050 per month, not including heat or utilities.  

With the government's announcement, the most Wain can now be charged is an extra $28.50 per month. She is hoping there won't be any loopholes in that restriction that would allow her, or her neighbours, to be pushed out for renovations or other manufactured reasons. 

In his speech, Steeves did say new rules will include a ban on the ability of landlords to "terminate a tenancy without cause."

"I feel that we're moving in the right direction," said Wain.

"It does give me a reprieve as long as there is not a way around this. I very much want to believe that run-of-the-mill working people might be receiving some real protection."

Housing in New Brunswick has become a contentious issue in recent months. A surprising surge in population growth has outpaced the construction of new housing units and caused shortages in places to live.  

Last week, Statistics Canada reported New Brunswick added an estimated 12,946 people in 2021, the most in 46 years.

That influx lowered vacancy rates for New Brunswick apartments from 3.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which was the steepest decline in Canada last year. 

It has helped drive up costs of both renting apartments and buying houses. It has also triggered a buying spree of apartment buildings by investors who, in some cases, have tried to impose significant rent increases on the tenants they inherit.

The rent cap is too late to help Douglas London and his wife, Anne, but they also welcomed the news.

The couple moved out of their Saint John apartment of four years this winter after an Ontario investor bought their building, and gave them notice of a 61 per cent rent increase.

"I would have stayed where we were if it had been three or four per cent," said London.

"I'm glad something will be done about it. That is excellent. That is what we were hoping for." 

Roxanne Cormier agreed. Her building also sold to buyers from Ontario and Alberta, and she was handed a rent increase notice of 74 per cent. She said the province had little choice but to act.

"They had to," said Cormier, who has already made arrangements to move.   

"The facts are right there. People were being forced out of their homes by astronomical rent increases."