Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: rent review
Message-ID: <1433@looking.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 88 07:57:17 GMT
References: <1988Feb24.140628.28040@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Distribution: ont
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 28

Well, there's little question that the situation today needs fixing.
Towns these days have vacancy rates less than 1% which causes a real
problem.

Then you also have two classes of appartments.  First there are the
rent controlled ones.  Tennants all love low rent, so these are usually
always full, often with long waiting lists.  If there isn't a waiting
list, it's because the place is one of those that the landlord has
semi-abandoned due to non-profitability.  Many appartments under rent
control get almost no maintenance, and it's no wonder why, when the owner
is reduced to a custodian with almost no control on the property.

On the other hand, the new buildings, not under rent review, are where
the vacancies are, but at prices that look bad compared to the controlled
places.

There is no rent review on new buildings, in theory to encourage new
construction, but the vacancy rates we're getting show that this isn't
working well.  With a large base of cheap, controlled appartments around,
it's a lot harder to get tennants into a new, profitable place than it
would be in a free market.

What seems to has happened is that builders have all realized that the
money (and free market) is in units for sale - houses and condos.  Lots of
those going up, and fewer and fewer rental units, even with the tax breaks
they gave.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473