Discussions

This is going to be long. I'm not a landlord and so will have quite a bit less experience than some people posting here but based on a lot of research and knowing folks that do own properties I hope I can chip in with another perspective to help this as a discussion.  
 
I know what you mean OP. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was renting a 2 bedroom apartment. At the time rent seemed high and every thought of an increase pointed in the direction of being harder to make ends meet. Rent has gone up since then to the point where small one bedrooms are going for what that two bedroom place used to be.  
 
The thing I've learned since then and especially recently is that there are two important sides to the coin and if each understands and respects the other maybe there's a win-win to be had. Tenants do need options in the rental market to be able to live at an amount that would be considered reasonable to them, but the person that's put money on the line to own and maintain the place thats being rented needs to make a reasonable return on their investment or they won't bother owning and will put their money in for example the stock market in stead.  
 
Warren Buffett says that over time you should expect a 6-7% return on the stock market so i'll take his word for it. To compare real estate locally, I recently looked at purchasing a $140,000 rental property in Brandon that after taking all initial and ongoing expenses into account and then setting rent at where the market currently has it would see the return be around 5% give or take (plus whatever the property might gain in value if it goes up. Jury is very much out on that). So already you're looking at a situation where the stock market would very possibly win without factoring the extra time and effort that goes into management (or extra fees to a management company). Then you could look at there being a lot of the jitters around the real estate market in Canada and the fact that there's a risk that $140,000 investment loses value (not that you couldn’t say the same about the stock market). And then you factor in that costs such as tax and in some cases utilities and insurance go up, and every increase in cost is going to lower the rate of return for the property owner unless it's accounted for (ie rent increase... or a decrease in some other expense which I don't imagine happens very often).  
 
As a tenant I'd start by asking myself how you can be the kind of tenant that would stand out above the other tenants that the landlord is looking at. How can you give the landlord comfort that you take care of the places you rent as if they were your own. If you plan to be in it for the long haul how can you give them comfort that if they go with you they won't have to be renting the place out to new tenants as often... or that if the rental market goes South you're likely to stick with them and not move to the shiny new place down the street. How can you come across as someone that might make one less 3AM phone call (respectful of course of the fact that it's sometimes necessary and goes with the territory of ownership)? These are some things that I imagine would be music to a landlords ears, maybe some with actual experience can speak to further. There are never guarantees but If I was the landlord I might consider $25-50 per month lower if enough of the above stars aligned, but probably not a lot less because in the end it's an investment that needs to net a return relative to other investment options out there, and with where the market is right now as far as the low vacancy rate the landlord knows that they should be able to rent at the going rate and get the corresponding return.  
 
As a tenant other than shopping around I'm not sure what else you could do short of hoping for a real estate market drop or a change in the current vacancy rate/supply/demand as it is right now. Or perhaps let your government rep know of your concerns about the market in general in case there is a larger issue that could be dealt with in ways other than what might be being done at the moment. If there truly is an imbalance between cost of living and what one makes on average in any given community, the more folks they hear from the more they'll be able to accurately assess and come up with fair solutions if deemed necessary.  
 
Best of luck in your search!  
 
Edited by Adam, 2017-03-22 15:29:18