Publications and Reports
Without Protection: An Examination of New Brunswick's Rental Housing Crisis
New Brunswick tenants fight against a system leaves them without protection from unreasonable rent increases, arbitrary eviction, and persistent harassment from landlords.
Draft Rent Regulation Section for the New Brunswick Residential Tenancies Act
The New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights has released draft rent control regulations that, if enacted into law, would stabilize run-away rent increases in New Brunswick while providing fairness to landlords.
Assessing the Impact of a Property Tax Cut on Rental Affordability in New Brunswick
This report addresses how a proposed property tax cut on landlords would play out in New Brunswick, given the increased penetration of financial investors in the real estate market at the national scale. The report uses one apartment building as an example to show how typical properties in New Brunswick are undervalued compared to national comparators that institutional investors are using to evaluate the "market price" of real estate. As we point out, the property tax cut will increase cash flow for landlords, and make real estate ownership more profitable. Measures of cash flow in real estate investment are also important numbers that financial investors use to estimate the market price of a property. While real estate investment in New Brunswick has traditionally been considered quite a bit riskier than in larger centres, the entry of large corporate landlords into the real estate industry has led to long-term trends of property price appreciation across Canada. The report points out how a tax cut will make this situation worse, and that rather than decreasing or constraining rental inflation, it risks worsening the situation considerably. We suggest alternative measures for addressing the housing crisis in New Brunswick.
A building in Saint John. Photo by Bonnie Glynn.
Municipal Platform on Housing
In anticipation of the 2021 Municipal Elections, the NB Coalition for Tenants Rights has released a platform on housing for municipalities after canvassing best practices across the country. The bottom line? Municipalities have a role to play in securing the right to housing, and there is no shortage of ideas to do it.
Sign for a Killam building (one of many REITs) in Fredericton. Photo by Tracy Glynn.
REITS in NB - A Critical Look
New Brunswick is seeing some of the highest penetration rates of a predatory landlord - Real Estate Investment Trusts. Matthew Hayes offers a critical look at the situation and proposes some next steps for our province.