Tenants bracing for rent increase this fall

CHEK
Photo credit: Nicholas Pescod/CHEK News

As the cost of just about everything continues to climb, renters are bracing for another potential hit.

Landlords can only raise rents each year based on a figure — based on inflation for a 12-month period ending in July — that the B.C. government sets.

The province has not announced what the rent increase will be for 2022 but considering that inflation has soared this year and based on the B.C. government’s current formula, the increase this year could be as much as six per cent.

Emily Rogers, the director of operations for Together Against Poverty Society, said the possibility of such a high increase is concerning to her.

“If we have a four or five per cent rent increase, I am very concerned about what that will mean for the people in my community,” said Rogers, adding. “The fact is that rent has gone up on average by double digits over the last few years. So, putting a four to five percent increase on top of the rent inflation that we’ve already seen is not a sustainable, or well thought through idea.”

According to new monthly data from Rentals.ca, year-over-year rent for Victoria has increased by 10.4 per cent, despite the average price for one-bedroom and two-bedroom units decreasing in June.

READ MORE: Average rent in Victoria sees a 10.4 per cent increase year-over-year

In early 2020, B.C. implemented a province-wide rent freeze due to the pandemic that remained in place throughout 2021 but has since been lifted.

While a new rental freeze appears unlikely, David Eby, the province’s minister of housing, recently said the government is looking at ways to reduce the increase and is trying to find a solution that is appropriate for both renters and landlords.

“The current range is suggested that it could potentially land in a five to six per cent range. The biggest increase in recent memory we’ve had in the province was an increase of between four and five per cent and that was in a period when two per cent was added to the inflation rate. So I think it would be quite a shock for renters to see that level of increase. So we’re doing the work right now to determine how to appropriately reflect both increased cost for landlords as well as the risk to tenants of a sudden dramatic rent increase,” Eby said last month.

The province is expected to announce the Maximum Allowable Rent Increase sometime this late summer, or early September.

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With files from Rob Shaw and Laura Brougham

Mary GriffinMary Griffin

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