Getting Into And Maintaining Housing In The Private Rental Market PDF Download

This report examines the experience of 11 countries (including Canada) from Europe, Scandinavia, North America and the Pacific Rim in supporting a private rental sector as part of their national housing system. The purpose was to examine the extent to which other governments have developed policies and programs specifically to encourage the production of rehabilitation of the private rental stock. The main body of the report reviews the objectives of the research, develops a framework for the comparative assessment and looks at the rental market in the selected countries. It then outlines policy issues specific to the private rental sector since 1980 and how each country has responded, summarizing the major policy and program initiatives, which have been identified for each country, and assessing the relevance of this experience for Canada. An appendix provides a detailed profile of each country. It presents the general background on the relative importance of the private rental stock in each country's housing system, the regulatory and tax regimes that affect private rental housing, and the current policy issues related to the private rental sector. Detailed assessments of specific major policies and programs in each country are also included. Key findings of the report include: 1. In almost all countries, except in instances of pressing urgency, governments have adopted a "laissea-faire" approach with regard to encouraging and facilitating private rental housing. 2. Across all countries, the fundamental cause of the low level of investment in private rental production and rehabilitation is the lack of a cmpetitive return relative to other forms of investment, especially in light of the risks inherent in rental investment. 3. The only countries that appear to have maintained a healthy investment for private rental housing without direct subsidies are New Zealand and Australia. Notably, neither have rent controls and permit depreciation and deductibility of rental losses against other sources of income. 4. Variants of virtually all the policy and program initiatives used in other countries have been attempted in Canada over the last three decades. 5. The most critical rental issue facing most governments is not simply the lack of private rental housing production, but the problem that many low-income households do not have sufficient incomes to access rental housing at a cost they can afford.