Newsgroups: can.politics
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!eem
From: eem@csri.toronto.edu (Evangelos Milios)
Subject: Re: rent review
Message-ID: <1988Feb26.225840.21116@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <1988Feb24.140628.28040@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <1433@looking.UUCP>
Distribution: ont
Date: Fri, 26-Feb-88 22:58:39 EST

In article <1433@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
>Well, there's little question that the situation today needs fixing.
>
>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
Rents these days are way out of line with respect to salaries people 
make. Paying at least $1000/mo + utils for a 2bdrm apt in Toronto 
on a salary of 32K/yr is ridiculous. A family with children and a 
non-working spouse simply cannot survive.
>
>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.
True, but a new profitable place is far too expensive for the average person.
So thank God there are controlled apartments around, which are by no means
cheap, but almost within reach of the average person.
>
>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.
>
So why are people crazy about buying their own home? Because rents are too
expensive, even with rent control. That drives house prices up, and 
that in turn drives rents up for new houses or old houses that enter the 
market for the first time.
I am in favor of rent control. Without it, in a .01% vacancy rate, only the
sky is the limit of what greedy landlords may ask for rent.
The only solution I see is for the city or the province to support more co-op
housing projects, so that people who cannot afford to buy can still get decent
housing at reasonable prices outside the "free market" economy. Otherwise,
the average person is steadily being squeezed out of Toronto or forced into
a substandard quality of living, inhabiting basements or delapidated dwellings.


-- 

Evangelos E. Milios	        Internet(UUCP,ARPANET,BITNET,CSNET):          
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