Municipalities and schools are preparing to increase taxes in their next budgets and are strongly motivated by the significant increases in property and building values.
Montréal and its boroughs have shown their need to increase their taxes significantly by obviously basing themselves on the increase in the value of buildings while the market value of rental buildings – among others – has seen significant growth during the last few years.
Our message is clear: the landlord of a rental building will not make more money by managing his investment even though the property value of his/her building has increased. In addition, municipal costs do not vary due to the increase in value.
Knowing full-well that the increase in property value of a building does not lead to increased income, landlords risk increasing their rents. However, the ability of several tenants to pay is limited and could even put the landlord in a difficult position.
We are convinced that municipalities and school commissions should not benefit from the increase in the property value of buildings to again tax taxpayers even more. In the case of rental building landlords, the appetite of our decision-makers risks affecting in particular the situation of small owners by plunging them into a difficult situation with their tenants, while the latter have often invested their savings in real estate.
We therefore request that municipalities and school commissions be moderate and not take advantage of an increase in the property values on the heads of landlords by telling them that in their great generosity and kindness cities will share the increase over many years. This means that the increase is not justified. Cities must manage their budgets strictly to maintain expenses as low as possible.
We invite you to let your municipal elected officials know what and how you feel.