How rent control can help tenants — or not

With the cost of rental housing hitting all-time highs, many current and would-be tenants alike have something on their mind: rent control.

The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in a purpose-built building was $1,258 per month in 2022 — much more in Toronto and Vancouver — according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). 

Those rates are an increase of 5.6 per cent over the previous year, says CMHC — well above the 2021 average of just three per cent. 

A lot of tenants who are "truly struggling with rising rents" are pushing for more regulation, said Bahar Shadpour, director of policy and communications at the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR), a tenants advocacy organization.

But rent control works differently in various parts of the country, and there are mixed opinions about whether it's the answer. 

Five provinces and one territory offer some form of rental regulation: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and, recently, Yukon.

Nova Scotia has a temporary rent control policy, brought in during the pandemic, which expires at the end of 2025.

In all provinces and territories, rents can typically only be raised on a leased unit once every 12 months, and landlords must give between one and three months notice, depending on the length of the lease. 

But with rent control, governments set a maximum increase each year. In Ontario, for 2024, it's 2.5 per cent.

But in most places, those maximums only apply to tenants currently renting a unit. Generally, landlords can increase rents between leases as high as the market can bear.

That's where vacancy control comes into play. P.E.I. regulates of rental rates between tenants. The rents are attached to the unit, not the renter, according to the CCHR.

Manitoba also offers vacancy control, but only in buildings with four or more units.

In Quebec, landlords must notify new tenants of the lowest rent in the preceding 12 months when signing a new lease.

For ongoing tenants in Quebec, rent control applies if the tenant refuses an increase within one month of receiving notice and requests a review by the housing tribunal. The tribunal can then determine the increase, according to an annual calculation, that tenant and landlord must agree to.