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Letter: Burnaby landlords need to stop complaining about their profits

Editor: The most important thing a civilized nation must do is ensure that all its citizens are fed and housed.
for rent

Editor:

The most important thing a civilized nation must do is ensure that all its citizens are fed and housed. I think that the people of Burnaby understand this; it was clearly demonstrated by the recent civic election, where a newcomer beat the incumbent mayor on the housing issue.

There is a huge power imbalance between landlords and tenants. Anybody can be evicted at the drop of a hat, and then what? Where do they go? With the median rent of a 1-bedroom apartment in Vancouver reported at $2,000 per month in 2017, and the vacancy around 1%, who can afford to find a new apartment?

And yet, some people would still have us believe that landlords need more power. Witness Jamie Ong and his Dec. 19 letter in the Burnaby NOW. In order to try to convince us that landlords are in dire need of help, he makes a bunch of bogus claims. They are all easily refutable; I can only deal with a few of them here.

Claim: Landlords are homeowners, exclusively. False. The vast majority of suites are owned by companies with shareholders.

Claim: A huge capital investment is required. Disingenuous. What it means is that only rich people can afford to play this game, where you get your money for nothing. Most people have to actually work for a living, and they have little enough to show for it. To the extent that landlords are homeowners renting out basement suites or such, they are investing in their own equity, and are de facto millionaires. The renters are paying the mortgage, but get zero equity.

Claim: Landlords get a dismal rate of return. False. A typical low-rise apartment block generates $30,000 of revenue every month. A high-rise, $100,000. Probably half of that is direct profit, i.e. money for nothing. As for maintenance and repairs, every renter knows that the time for repairs ranges between slow and never.

Claim: Rent increase is capped at inflation. Laughable. Rents in Vancouver have skyrocketed during the past decades, so that today, even professionals have difficulty affording rent, to say nothing of owning a home.

Claim: The eviction process is long and costly. Absurd. Eviction for cause is easy. It takes a couple of weeks to get an eviction order, and if the tenant doesn’t comply, you just throw them onto the street. The only difficulty might be if a landlord wants to throw someone onto the street without cause. Well, you can’t do that, and you shouldn’t be able to. Surprise! We’re not barbarians anymore, and our society is based on rule of law.

Yes, we have a rental housing crisis in the Lower Mainland, but it is a crisis propelled by unfair legislation that transformed housing from a necessity of life into the opportunity for speculators to make a killing and international criminal organizations to launder money.

Victor Finberg, Burnaby