While inflation is shaking Quebecers’ wallets, rising rents and evictions are taking hold more quickly.
In its report, Moving: a nightmare for tenants, a dream opportunity for owners, the Regroupement des committees logement et associations de tenants du Québec (RCLALQ) sounds the alarm in the face of a “completely unbalanced” rental market.
It shows that large Quebec cities are not spared from the sustained increase in rents which has increased in recent years.
Data shows that between 2020 and 2024, rents for available housing increased by 50% in Trois-Rivières or by 27% in Montreal. For the same period, inflation increased by 17%.
The RCLALQ insists that increasing the supply of housing does not resolve the crisis hitting the province, because newly built residential units can command high rents. This is a vision shared by the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU).
The Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS) supports this observation in its latest report by showing that the number of completed housing units in Quebec exceeds in the majority of cases the growth in the number of households.
“It’s not a simple question of supply then demand, and as long as we take the problem like that, we’re going to go in the wrong direction,” explains RCLALQ co-spokesperson Cédric Dussault .
According to him, these figures show the need to impose control on rents, particularly when it comes to changing tenants. “We are calling for rent control measures, because until we implement this, rents will continue to rise faster than inflation. »
The RCLALQ report also notes a significant increase in cases of forced eviction. These have increased by 132% in the last year.
Although the RCLALQ has recorded 3,531 cases of forced eviction with its various housing committees, this figure seems to be only the tip of the iceberg.
Even if the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, announced her desire to have a moratorium on evictions for a period of three years, Cédric Dussault deplores that the latter does not take into account all types eviction.
He denounces in particular “fraudulent evictions”, which represent “the majority” of evictions. Cédric Dussault mentions, for example, the undue pressure on tenants to force them to leave their accommodation or the refusal of certain owners to carry out repairs to push them towards the door.