Winds of Change

In June, the government of Quebec introduced Bill 31, a measure designed to address the province’s housing crisis, marked by low vacancy rates and spiralling rents. To the outrage of affordability advocates, the proposed law would eliminate lease transfers, which allow tenants to pass on their apartments to new occupants for the same rent. (Currently, landlords need a serious reason to refuse a transfer, and they can be challenged in court for doing so.) As it stands, this mechanism acts as a form of rent control, whereby savvy urbanites can find apartments below market rates and dodge the effects of gentrification.

Lease transfers are personally dear to me: one allowed me to secure my 900-square-foot palace of high ceilings and creaking floors, in a triplex near Montreal’s Parc La Fontaine, for $1,200 a month. This admission will probably lose me the sympathy of anyone in Vancouver or Toronto, who might be surprised to hear that transfers exist at all. Certainly...