Alan Thomarat
As the population in Saskatchewan continues to grow steadily, the housing crunch continues to get worse and worse.
The subject of rent control continues to come up as a solution to the rising rent costs and low vacancy rates in our province and it will no doubt be one of the top issues during the Provincial Election campaign this month.
Alan Thomarat is the CEO for the Canadian Home Builders Association. He says rent control is not the answer and that it does more harm than good.
"It limits the amount of money that can be put into renovating the stock and the very people that we wish to help you end up harming," said Thomarat. "The owners of the rental properties aren't able to improve the quality of the stock and insure that there are healthy and safe living accommodations."
Thomarat says targeted building of housing is a better solution to the problem, "I think across the province we need to look at where we've got post-secondary institutions, that we're building the kind of housing stock that will support seniors on a fixed income, students which are vital to communities like Moose Jaw, so that we are helping to alleviate and mitigate the rising housing costs."
Since 2006, the province's population has seen an increase of 66,000 people, pushing us over 1,057,000 people, Thomarat adds that this kind of jump requires approximately 26,000 new homes.
The subject of rent control continues to come up as a solution to the rising rent costs and low vacancy rates in our province and it will no doubt be one of the top issues during the Provincial Election campaign this month.
Alan Thomarat is the CEO for the Canadian Home Builders Association. He says rent control is not the answer and that it does more harm than good.
"It limits the amount of money that can be put into renovating the stock and the very people that we wish to help you end up harming," said Thomarat. "The owners of the rental properties aren't able to improve the quality of the stock and insure that there are healthy and safe living accommodations."
Thomarat says targeted building of housing is a better solution to the problem, "I think across the province we need to look at where we've got post-secondary institutions, that we're building the kind of housing stock that will support seniors on a fixed income, students which are vital to communities like Moose Jaw, so that we are helping to alleviate and mitigate the rising housing costs."
Since 2006, the province's population has seen an increase of 66,000 people, pushing us over 1,057,000 people, Thomarat adds that this kind of jump requires approximately 26,000 new homes.
Sat, May 11, 6:30 PM
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