The President of the Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board says the province's move to cap the 2023 rent increase guideline below the inflation rate comes as positive news.
The maximum a landlord can raise rent will be 2.5 per cent, much lower than the projected 5.3 per cent inflation rate.
Rob Longo expects the move will actually benefit both landlords and tenants.
"The 2.5 per cent is significantly higher than last year which was 1.2 per cent," said Longo. "It is good to see that. I think that will help the landlords and, at the same time, obviously the Ontario government is trying their best to assist the renters. It probably should have been much higher but they've left it at 2.5 per cent to try and keep that balance between landlords and tenants."
Longo said the news shouldn't have a huge impact on the local housing market.
"Obviously, it helps to reinforce anybody that is currently a landlord just to give them a bit of a lift in terms of their expenses," he said. "But, it shouldn't cause a huge change in terms of the tenants. Obviously, we've seen market rents increase significantly more than 2.5 per cent over the past number of years. That market continues to be challenging for tenants but anyone in an existing home, I think, should be somewhat pleased with the government's announcement."
The guideline applies to the vast majority – approximately 1.4 million – of rental households covered by the Residential Tenancies Act.
It doesn't apply to rental units occupied for the first time after November 15, 2018, vacant residential units, community housing, long-term care homes or commercial properties.
Landlords can only raise rent if they gave tenants at least 90 days’ written notice, and at least 12 months must have passed since the first day of the tenancy or the last rent increase.
