New Brunswick tenants dealing with Canada's fastest-rising rents

Jaclyn Reinhart ended years of being a tenant when she bought a house in Saint John in April.

She is thrilled with the change, especially after seeing the $934 per month, three-bedroom apartment she moved out of listed in June by her former landlord for $1,800, plus utilities.  

"I couldn't imagine paying $1,800 or more for a three-bedroom apartment," said Reinhart.

"I don't know how people are supposed to live."

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada reported overall inflation continues to come down across the country, but in New Brunswick rent remains a major exception to that trend.

In May, all prices in the province averaged just 2.3 per cent higher than 12 months earlier. But rental costs to tenants were up 9 per cent, with most of that increase coming since the province removed hard caps on rent increases on Jan. 1.

The New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights has called "runaway rental inflation" an ongoing problem for tenants and last month urged the return of a hard cap on rent increases in the province.

"Housing options for people on low and moderate incomes are rapidly declining, even as new, privately developed rental stock hits the market," the coalition said in a statement.

New Brunswick experimented with capping rent increases at the rate of inflation in 2022 but claimed it caused an almost instant drop in new apartment construction.  

It then replaced the cap with other measures for 2023 that tenant groups have been complaining are not as effective at protecting renters.

For the period covering January to May this year — the first five months after the cap ended —new figures show rent in New Brunswick has escalated 5.7 per cent. The increase was the largest recorded in Canada for the period and more than double the national average.

In May alone rents in New Brunswick were measured to be 1.7 per cent higher than April, which was also the largest increase in the country over that single month period.

Government officials have said they are monitoring rental markets closely but the province has likely seen only a portion of the rent increases tenants are facing this year. 

Rules that limit landlords to one increase every 12 months, and require six months notice of any change, mean the increases documented so far will not have included thousands of New Brunswick tenants who had not experienced a 2023 increase as of May.

Dick Parker's increase does not begin until later this fall.

Parker is among several dozen tenants in multiple Saint John buildings, owned by Historica Six GP Inc., who received notice last spring of a 15 per cent increase in rent in October.

Parker challenged the amount with the Residential Tenancies Tribunal, which found it to be a reasonable increase. But the tribunal ordered it to be implemented in equal installments over three years because of its size.

Parker is happy he now faces a five per cent increase on Oct. 1, but isn't sure how many tenants like him challenged their increases.    

"I'm pleased with how it turned out," said Parker.

The province encourages tenants facing large increases to apply to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal to have them spread out over multiple years, which is one of the changes implemented after rent caps were eliminated.

But those rules are new and not widely understood or advertised, and only some tenants have been applying for that help.

There are also no restrictions on landlords raising rent levels on newly vacant units, like Reinhart's former apartment, which has been a major contributor to rising market prices for newcomers and movers.

New Brunswick's largest landlord, Killam Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust, reported in May that it averaged 2.3 per cent increases on lease renewals across all of its apartment holdings during the first three months of 2023, compared to 14.3 per cent on vacant units rented to new tenants.  

One quarter of Killam's apartments are in New Brunswick.

Reinhart said she feels lucky to have had the resources to escape the rental market when she did.

"I am so grateful everyday that I have my own house," she said.

"It has been wonderful. All the stars aligned for me."