Key takeaways:
- ‘Their approach to constructing inexpensive units isn’t working.’
- The government requires a new strategy to construct affordable accommodation, says the Green Party.
Rent prices in PEI notice price hikes:
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) statement, the leasing price climbed on PEI last year, and the Opposition Green Party says it’s time for the government to rethink its accommodation plan.
The average rent, including flats and townhouses, increased to $1,017 in 2021, an expansion of 8.1 percent.
‘The rent boosts, we’ve known about them for a long time, but they are still shocking,” stated Green housing critic Karla Bernard.
“When we look at that report, and we think government action, you know, there’s a massive gap there.”
The growth is easily the biggest in the previous decade and tracks a 4.6 percent boost in 2020. Increases in other years in the prior decade were usually one to three percent.
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Despite the acquisition of approximately 120 of what the regional government defined as subsidized units, the price increased. Overall the area added 520 flats over those available in 2020, an upsurge of 7.9 percent. And however, the vacancy rate still dropped, from 2.6 percent to 1.5 percent.
The issue, said Bernard, is that construction in the region is not maintaining up with its growing population.
PEI registered a 2.8 percent increase from October 2020 to October 2021. That led the nation and the region to say it was the most significant yearly increase on record.
Government should be looking at counting to its supply of rental units, told Bernard, ideally by rapidly picking up some of the region’s more rundown apartments and renovating them.
Lower rent flats still available says landlords’ group
Islanders should be cautious interpreting the CMHC news, said Cecil Villard, executive director of the Residential Rental Association of PEI, a group representing Island landlords.
Source – cbc.ca
