Corporate Landlords Make Rent Unaffordable
Housing rental affordability is in crisis across Canada and in Winnipeg Centre, disproportionately hurting low-income renters. Since the 90s, corporate landlords like investment firms and real estate investment trusts (REITs) have increasingly bought up affordable housing, flipping it for profit. To drive up value for their investors, REITs are incentivized to cut services, raise fees, and remove existing tenants to bypass rent controls. Research shows that when a corporate landlord acquires a building, the eviction-filing rate in that building is tripled.
Since 1996, REITs grew from owning zero rental suites in Canada, to nearly 400,000 today. Corporate landlords are estimated to hold 20-30% of Canada’s rental stock. Building more homes might ease the burden on some homebuyers, but the evidence suggests it doesn’t help renters. A 2019 study found that new purpose-built rentals cost 170% of average market rents, driving up other neighbourhood rents. We need changes to housing and financial policy that actually protect renters.
Stop the Financialization of Housing
Housing is not a commodity; housing is a social good and a fundamental human right. Our homes connect us to family, community, and the land. The right to housing, affirmed in international covenants to which Canada is signatory, and affirmed in Canada’s own National Housing Strategy Act, has minimum criteria including affordability, security of tenure, habitability, and safety.
The financialization of housing through corporate ownership is a human rights issue that threatens our right to adequate housing. Financialization makes rentals unaffordable, reduces security of tenure, jeopardizes dignified living conditions, and is associated with adverse health outcomes particularly for seniors and people with disabilities. We need policy to limit and prevent further financial ownership of housing; prevent displacement of tenants; and end government financing, subsidies, and tax advantages for corporate landlords.