In the post I made yesterday I mentioned an article in the Toronto Star published this past Sunday (November 24th) which discussed rent control in Ontario. The tenants quoted in the article, who are facing “economic evictions” due to the exemption of ‘new’ purpose-built rental buildings from rent control, suggested expanding rent control to include all rentals (ironically, the previous provincial government had done just that, but it lasted for only about a year before the current provincial government reverted back to the previous rules).
It’s unlikely that rent control will be expanded (again) to include new and recently constructed rentals, but what if it was? Would adopting a two-tier rent control scheme be a possible approach? Old rental buildings, whose rent increases are currently are subject to the annual guideline issued by the province (usually around 2% or just a bit below), would continue to operate without changes. New and recently constructed rental buildings, which are currently have no cap on rent increases, could be subject to a higher annual guideline increase, say 5%.
This scheme would make nobody happy, of course, but that’s the nature of compromise.