Tenants Hail N.S. Rent Cap Extension, While Landlords Flail
HALIFAX — Tenants in Nova Scotia will continue to be protected by a rent cap for at least another two years. On March 22, The provincial government announced it was extending the cap until the end of 2025. But there is an important change happening next year.
Starting January 1, 2024, the cap will increase from two per cent to five per cent per year. The two percent marker has been in place since November of 2020, originally as an emergency measure during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The cap protects long-term tenants who are renewing their annual lease, or a fixed-term tenant signing a new agreement for the same unit. It does not apply to new tenants moving into a unit for the first time.
According to the provincial government, one in three Nova Scotians are renters.
In a press release, Colton Leblanc, Minister of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services, said by keeping the cap in place, and by raising it to five per cent, the government struck a balance for landlords and tenants.
“Nova Scotians are facing challenging financial times, and that factors greatly in every decision we make,” said Leblanc. “We are always working to balance the rights and needs of tenants and landlords. Extending the rent cap by two years will protect renters while adjusting the amount rent can increase will support landlords.”
Kevin Russell, the director of IPOANS, which is a provincial organization representing landlords, disagrees with Leblanc. He said the extension of the rent cap marks an imbalance that doesn’t favour landlords.
Russell says since 2020, landlords have faced two-digit increases in insurance, energy, and other ongoing expenses. He argues a five per cent cap won’t cover the inflation felt by these property owners.
“This does nothing for the smaller landlords who have been under a rent cap since 2020,” Russell told Huddle. “The fact of the matter is, the smaller landlords are well under market rents, and the rent increases under 5 per cent, are not going to cover the expenses. So they’re falling further and further behind.
“At the end of the day, this is just going to result in more landlords, smaller landlords, most commonly called Mom and Pop landlords, to exit the business, because it does not make economic sense for them to remain in the industry.”
ACORN, the prominent tenants’ rights organization, applauded the decision to keep a cap in place. But the organization is still looking for more protections, such as a ban on renovictions and fixed-term leases. Renovictions were banned for a time during the pandemic but the ban was lifted a year ago. The government did introduce new rules around compensation for people displaced by renovictions, however.
Pat Donovan, the co-chair for Spryfield ACORN, called the rent cap extension a victory.
“It gives us two years to contemplate it, to continue working with the government, and hopefully get (permanent) rent cap, which is what we want,” Donovan told Huddle.
“I have no problem with (raising the cap to five percent) at the moment. Hopefully down the road we can get it lowered a little bit. But for right now, it is a good victory.”
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].