P.E.I. rents see biggest increase in a decade

The cost of renting spiked on P.E.I. last year, according to a report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), and the Opposition Green Party says it's time for the government to reconsider its housing strategy.

The average rent, including apartments and townhouses, rose to $1,017 in 2021, an increase of 8.1 per cent.

'The rent increases, we've known about them for a long time but they are nonetheless shocking," said Green housing critic Karla Bernard.

"When we look at that report and we consider government action, you know, there's a huge gap there."

The increase is easily the largest in the last decade, and follows a 4.6 per cent increase in 2020. Increases in other years in the last decade were typically one to three per cent.

The cost was up despite the addition of about 120 of what the provincial government described as subsidized units. Overall the province added 520 apartments over those available in 2020, an increase of 7.9 per cent. And yet the vacancy rate still fell, from 2.6 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

The problem, said Bernard, is that building in the province is not keeping up with its growing population.

P.E.I. reported 2.8 per cent growth from October 2020 to October 2021. That led the country, and the province said it was the largest annual increase on record.

Government should be looking at adding to its own stock of rental units, said Bernard, ideally by quickly picking up some of the province's more rundown apartments and refurbishing them.

Islanders should be careful interpreting the CMHC report, said Cecil Villard, executive director of the Residential Rental Association of P.E.I., a group representing Island landlords.

The report does not mean the average tenant on P.E.I. experienced an eight per cent increase in rent. Rents are controlled on P.E.I., and legally landlords could not put rents up more than 1.3 per cent in 2021.

Most of the increase in 2021 came as the result of expensive new apartments becoming available, said Villard.

"Those new units were high-end units and the rents for those units would have been quite a bit higher than what would have been considered the average rent on P.E.I.," he said.

He estimated the price of these new apartments at about $2,000 per month, while the average price for a two-bedroom was $1,055.