A commentary by a Victoria resident.
The Sept. 1 editorial “Difficult measures needed as Greater Victoria densifies” states that “an average two-bedroom apartment rented for $1,570 per month last year.”
This number, which is sourced from the CMHC report, “Rental Market Report, January 2023 Edition,” is deceptive in that it lumps the rents on long-term tenancies with intertenancy rents and averages the sum to yield a number a naïve reader would expect reflects the rent a person looking for an apartment today will be required to pay.
But according to the same CMHC report (page 20): “The average rent for purpose-built rental apartments [in Victoria] increased by 7.7% in 2022, the fastest growth since 1991. This was driven by strong rent increases in units that were turned over to new tenants. As an example, a turnover 2-bedroom apartment was rented at a 33% higher rent, on average, than an occupied unit in the same building.”
An Aug. 20, 2022, Victoria News article, “Victoria rents spike at fastest rate in the country in past year,” reports: “Cost of 2-BR suite reaches $2,836, a jump of 34.8 per cent over July 2021.”
For the period August 2021 through January 2023, then, the compound rate of increase in intertenancy rent on a two-bedroom apartment in Victoria was 79 per cent [(1.33 X 1.34.8) - 1].
The Cambridge dictionary defines “profiteering” as “the act of taking advantage of a situation in order to make a profit, usually by charging high prices for things people need.” If price-gouging in B.C.’s housing markets does not satisfy the criteria for profiteering, then what in heaven’s name does?
The editorial urged governments not to “stand aside” and, after a number of words excusing the ruthless plunder of Victoria’s housing market in terms of people wanting to move here because it is so nice, recommended that “mental health services must be ramped up,” and “law enforcement resources must be strengthened in the urban core.”
By the logic of the editorial’s population growth argument, housing prices in provinces people flocking to Victoria are fleeing should be decreasing. Unsurprisingly, according to the CMHC report, they are not.
“Saskatoon,” for example, “saw its lowest vacancy rate and largest growth in same-sample average rent since 2014 … net migration has turned positive, and … [f]or households in the lowest income group, only 7% of properties were affordable to rent. “
“Migration into Alberta turned around sharply in 2022,” as well, “and was a major driver of rental demand,” according to the report. So apparently fewer people fled Saskatchewan and Alberta for Victoria in this period despite Victoria’s 33 per cent increase in intertenancy rent on a two-bedroom apartment.
In Toronto, “The number of apartments added to the primary rental stock in 2022 was the highest in recent decades. This increase, however, couldn’t offset the growth in demand.” Data reported across Canada are similar.
Our twin crises in housing and health-care are directly intertwined.
According to a Canadian Institute for Health Information report, “National Health Expenditure Trends 1975 to 2019,” federal, provincial, and territorial expenditures on healthcare in 2019 amounted to 11.6 per cent of Canada’s GDP. In 1975, this figure, Canada-wide, was seven per cent.
According to statistica.com, “Distribution of gross domestic product of British Columbia, Canada in 2021, by industry,” in 2021, outlays for health care in B.C. amounted to 7.05 per cent of B.C.’s GDP. In the same year, 19.6 per cent of B.C.’s GDP was spent on rent.
Here is a short list of government policies to implement to begin to correct this egregious mismanagement of B.C.’s economy by the current government and governments dating back at least until 1993:
1. Tax intertenancy rent increases in B.C. at 100 per cent.
2. Earmark those funds entirely to staff every role, present and future, at every public medical facility in B.C. at levels that conform to well-established, scientifically-agreed, evidence-based patient-to-practitioner ratios and compensate every healthcare worker at standards acceptable to all relevant unions.
3. Build only publicly financed, managed not-for-profit, purpose-built, affordable workforce rental housing. (Publicly-financed means the money is paid back in the form of rents by tenants and reloaned forever in perpetuity.)
We can either spend our money on doctors, nurses, and all the other practitioners everyone in this province depends on to provide services essential to our health, or shovel billions — with a B — of dollars into the pockets every year of real estate holders who are plundering our housing markets for every penny they can grab.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
