Record increase in rents in 30 years: Minister France-Élaine Duranceau offers few solutions… except moving

The Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, has few solutions to offer tenants affected by the record increase suggested by the TAL, other than moving.

• Also read: The calculation of the rent increase in 2025 is out: here’s what to expect

Ms. Duranceau appeared before the media shortly after the publication of the rent increases suggested by the Administrative Housing Tribunal for the year 2025.

At 5.9% for unheated housing, this is an average increase not seen in 30 years.

“It’s difficult, we know, for many tenants at the moment, the real solution to this whole crisis of unaffordability is to increase the supply of housing. This is what I have been trying to say for two years,” commented the minister.

Its reform of the housing law, adopted last February, gave more powers to cities in order to build more quickly, particularly at height.

Quebec is also banking on modular buildings, as well as the construction of housing on surplus state land.

Little recourse

But in the meantime, tenants caught in the lurch should not expect further recourse.

The minister invites them to turn to their local housing offices. “People can call on this service at any time to help find more affordable housing,” she emphasizes.

When a journalist pointed out to her that her government had capped Hydro-Québec rates at 3%, previously set according to inflation, the minister rejected the idea of ​​such a solution for rent prices.

“The government has capped the prices it controls,” she says, adding that such an approach would be impossible in the private sector. At the same time, the minister recalls that the TAL precisely marks the increases imposed by these same private owners.

The rent increases suggested by the TAL are “a method that has served us well for 40 years in Quebec,” underlines Ms. Duranceau.

The worried oppositions

The minister’s reaction clashed on Tuesday with that of the opposition parties.

Liberal housing spokesperson Virginie Dufour is calling for the rapid tabling of a bill to modify the calculation method of the administrative housing tribunal in order to better reflect reality.

According to her, a simple regulation could be adopted.

“We know in particular that the net income formula is creating an inflationary spiral at the moment, both tenants and owners have asked to review this formula,” she mentioned.

Ms. Dufour, however, believes that it is not possible to intervene at this stage to reduce a current increase.

At Québec solidaire, we are concerned about the impact of the planned increase on the most vulnerable.

“It’s very worrying about the effects this will have on the budgets of Quebec families. More and more people who work full time are going to food banks, what’s left to cut next?” asks the solidarity critic for Housing and Housing, Andrés Fontecilla.

He believes that Quebec must put in place “long-lasting solutions, including a rent register and a rent control mechanism”.

“The increases in the TAL are severe and deal a heavy blow to tenant households who are struggling to make ends meet,” commented PQ MP Joël Arseneau, who also pleads for better control of rent prices and a register.

“In half of the cases, tenants do not know the rent paid by the previous tenant, this is the famous clause G of the lease. The suggested increases take for granted that landlords follow the recommendations of the TAL each year, which is not the case,” observed the MP for Îles-de-la-Madeleine.

– With the collaboration of Marc-André Gagnon, Parliamentary Office