Unless you're living on another planet, you've probably heard that Calgary has a tight rental market. Calgary also has an unregulated rental market meaning there is no rent control. So if your landlord thinks he can raise your rent 500 bucks a month. He can. Just by giving you notice. So that creates for some high priced rental units out here.
Of late, the City of Calgary has been debating about allowing basement apartments. The pocketbook citizenry complain that allowing basement apartments will lower the value of their neighborhoods.
Really? I can't recall that happening in Toronto and area when basement suites became legal. What it did do is alleviate a tight rental market and give people choice.
The people complaining about this have no economic sense. There is a chronic labour shortage in Calgary & a rental crisis unless one is willing to pay 1200 bucks a month for a 1 bedroom. Think about it. Why would you move here if you can't find a place to live and it costs more than everywhere else, EVEN Toronto. The people of this city whine constantly about the shortage of workers, but give them no place to live. Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that people WONT come here because of the lack of rental choice?
And where does that leave Calgary? Well, it'll tighten the labour market, forcing wages higher for one thing.. Good for me, sure, but not good for business. There comes a point when the labour market becomes so expensive it's just easier to locate elsewhere.
And what about lower paid service businesses? If you can't find staff, you can't stay open. I've seen stores closed because of no staff. Not to mention a freaking burger, fries and a coke can cost 8 or 9 dollars in Calgary vs $5.50 elsewhere. When you're paying some fry cook 12 bucks an hour, the burgers gonna have to cost more.
But these people don't care. It's all about them. Who cares about the economic prosperity of the city. Of course that'll all change if this all caves in and this whole thing implodes. If you're worried about your precious property values falling because Ned the Newf moves into your basement suite, imagine what'll happen if the whole economy sinks because there aren't any workers. Just like 1981 all over.
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If you have basement apartments and the home owners simply charge rent you will run into problems. Education taxes are paid per household and not per person. So for a school that services X amount of homes in its area, there will be a Y number of students attending...then you have a cash crunch.
Brampton/Peel had and still has this problem but they dont address it in this way.
If you want to make basement apartments legal, then each unit (1 home, 2 dwellings) pay taxes seperatly.
Homes are built for a certain amount of people and community resources are funded accordingly.
By allowing an increase in the amount of users to the system more than the payers...problems ensue.
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