Rental Quotas in Antigonish

Rental Quotas in Antigonish: For

Due: November 21, 2018

For: Brandon Malloy ECON 241:10

By: Marshall Clarke

Our main topic of debate was whether or not the town of Antigonish should consider whether or not to institute a rental quota: that is, there will be an upper limit on how many houses may be used as rental properties at any one given time. Also homeowners must obtain a permit from the town in order to legally rent their properties out to potential renters. We believe that there should be an upper limit on rental properties and a permit should be necessary.

One of the big first reasons we found that this was a suitable idea is that landlords may have less properties to maintain. This means that the landlords will be able to focus on their tenants and properties more closely. If a landlord has many properties than he may not be able to tend to all of them as well as he could if had less. This will help ensure that tenants will have the full attention from the landlords when they need them.

Placing a rental quota will also combat the inelastic demand as well as GDP issues. Placing rental quotas in Antigonish will drastically decrease the amount of vacant homes during the summer months. With the surge of homes available to be purchased in the town of Antigonish, there will be an immediate burst of people buying homes. Not students but full time residence, many retirees see Antigonish as a great town to spend their retirement, however, with most properties being occupied by renters, many do not have viable options for homes or properties to purchase. We believe that these excess homes will sell fast resulting in full time residence homes that will contribute to the growth of the Antigonish economy. With more people, means more workers, diversity, and money being spent within the community, ultimately sparking economic growth.

Furthermore, if there were an increase in rental properties in Antigonish, this would result in a large drop in price due to the inelastic demand in rental housing. This would be unfortunate for landlords who will have to drop their current rental prices and, in due course, make less money. This is shown in the following graph.

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Enforcing a rental quota will also help to eliminate price setting as well as discrimination. The limit on rental properties will reduce the amount of properties some landlords will own. Thus reduces the chance of one or few landlords owning a majority of the rental properties in Antigonish. This means that the chances of a monopoly or oligopoly in the rental market will likely not be possible. With more landlords involved, there will be more competition to obtain tenants, meaning landlords will not be able to set their prices high knowing that there will be cheaper options. This however does not mean that landlords will miss out on profits, this will mean that landlords, who are taking advantage tenants owning a large share of the market, will not be able to overprice their properties. In the end, tenants will be given a more fair and reasonable price.

The rental quota will also have a positive effect on St. FX. With fewer houses available for students to rent, they have a viable option to live on campus. In Antigonish, whatever is good for the school is usually good for the community itself. With more money circulating in the university, the more money the school will have to spend to enrich student experience. This will entice more prospects to choose St. FX as their school of choice. The money can be used for a variety of things from the meal hall food to enhanced athletic facilities.

Currently, there is no permit necessary to be able to rent out a property or be a landlord. There is very minimal information regarding being a landlord besides a small webpage that can be found on the town of Antigonish website. As of right now, the only requirement is to own a property that you wish to rent out. All a landlord would need to do is obtain a legal lease that tenants will have to sign and abide by. We believe that there should be much more specifications required in order to become a landlord and to rent out a property.