Dear Editor:
Low rental vacancies and the elephant in the room – rent controls.
There is a rental crisis in B.C. and our government is tackling the problem by eliminating “loopholes” to try to keep rents down. This is a basic supply and demand situation: the fewer properties to rent, the higher the prices. Loop holes are important for landlords to keep prices current. If rent controls restrict rentals too onerously, there will be less for rent and you don’t get lower rents, you get higher rents. It is counterintuitive because our rent controls are very restrictive.
If the government efforts to restrict loopholes is successful, even fewer folks will invest in rental housing. And then the government will have to step in by adding more control or even building and renting housing at a loss. Or you get a situation like in Sweden, where you have to wait for five or more years to get a rental property. And once you do, you are afraid to move.
The answer is less restrictive rent controls, not tighter, and let the market work. Or the government steps in and provides rental housing.
Iain Blown
North Vancouver
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