I think parties are so bad that the only worse thing I can imagine is not having them.

fellas if this is your preferred approach you gotta use a comma to make clear that you're still considering your second move "hi,"

Again I really mean what I say: I am advocating for a very long period of extremely high (relative to recent history) vacancy rate. Not a one-time goal.

That being said: the latest figure for Montreal is 3% (blended) and rent has beaten inflation every month of 2024 so far. What we’re after is really rent deflation, which is probably something that can only happen with strong competition for renters. It doesn’t look like 3% vacant = a buyer’s market

As for the 7%, I have quibbles with the data coming from the CMHC rental market survey. It excludes all buildings with less than 3 rental units, which means a huge part of the Quebec stock - duplexes and triplexes with the landlord living there. There really hasn’t been a proper inventory in Quebec.

We also advocated for dynamic upzonings based on vacancy rates, i.e. if vacancy rates stay under target for 12 months all lots are automatically upzoned by 1 storey and/or 2 units. I signed the Housing and Task Force blueprint asking for 5,8 million new units and I really, really mean it.

Again I really think we’re arguing the same point. The 7% target in itself won’t do much, but we’re suggesting that it should be a trigger for facilitating conditions for new construction, i.e. as long as vacancy <7%, all multiunit projects within 1 km of metro stations are by-right (give or take).

It could be that the Quebec tipping point into rent deflation is 5 and not 7% but I really don’t think we have much to lose by overshooting on supply.

On the 7% figure, historical data is not ideal because things have changed a lot since but the vacancy rate was 5-7% in Quebec in 1995-1999, and the average rent growth for the period was 1,1% (CMHC).To get that kind of deflation in US markets you need 10% (their methodology for vacancy).

We agree more than not here. The point of targeting vacancy rates is essentially to fail: as soon as prices dip, consumer behaviour will change and make up the slack. We may never get to a stable 7% equilibrium but we hope that the peg is anchored at a place where it leads to constant building.