Later this fall, the City of Ottawa is expected to grant landlords sweeping powers to convert rental property into condominiums.Fresh on the heels of an average 16.1per cent property value increase in Somerset ward, it is one more brick in Centretown’s wall of housing woes. But this one is preventable: the city is responsible for accepting or rejecting landlords’ requests for conversions.
It comes down to where the city’s interest lies. On the one hand there are the landlords.
There is an estimated four per cent vacancy in Ottawa’s 21,500 rental units and the city has a history of allowing conversion to condominiums at only three per cent. This means when official vacancy statistics are released later in the fall landlords are expected to apply overwhelmingly for permission to turn their rental properties into highly-marketable condominiums.
A high vacancy rate in rental units combined with a 16.1per cent increase in property value adds up to plenty of incentive for landlords to sell condominiums for quick profit rather than keep renting without seeing the quick benefits of increased property value.
On the other hand, the interests of most of Centretown’s renters doesn’t seem to be served by a booming condo industry.
High property value assessment and an accompanying property tax increase will almost certainly follow for most. This will likely mean increases in rent; but such increases will be manageable for most renters. The province enforces a rent increase cap which will generally limit landlords from raising rent more than 2.1 per cent for 2006.
The condo push presents a much larger problem: many tenants will wake up to find their rented home sold from under their feet, unless they can cough up the required condominium down-payment, sometimes in a matter of days. Even if they can, property taxes may prove prohibitive in themselves as they become the ones directly paying it.
As a result, many renters may be forced into the difficult decision of moving into affordable, yet inadequate, housing in downtown neighbourhoods already strapped for things such as affordable services and well-funded schools or making a move to the suburbs where an equivalent stack of cash can buy a larger piece of property.
Over the years the city and others have made innumerable proposals aimed at revitalizing the downtown core and increasing population density. Driving out a significant portion of the population, often already established with families and roots is not the way to do it. Condominiums tend to attract young, childless professionals. They can be a positive force in a community but they cannot be the only force.
When a rental property is converted into a condominium that rental space is lost forever. The city needs to balance the creation of new condos with the preservation of already-existing rental housing.
Forcing long-time residents to the suburbs and saddling them with inadequate public transportation and poor downtown access is not fixing the problem of revitalization — they are the problem.
— Matt Goerzen