Recommended rent increase for 2025 hits historic high in Quebec

Tenants in Quebec already struggling to pay their monthly bills could face a historic increase in rent this year, based on guidelines released Tuesday (new window).

Each year, Quebec’s rental tribunal, known in French as the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), releases a set of calculations landlords can use before sending a notice of rent increase to a tenant. Those calculations are based on landlords’ expenses for the rental property.

Here are the latest recommendations:

• Tenants living in homes where heat is not included in the rent could see their rent increase 5.9 per cent, compared to an average of four per cent last year.
• Where heating is included in the rent, the increase varies by type:

A 5.9 per cent increase in rent would mean that someone currently paying $1,200 in monthly rent would see that go up to $1,270. That’s the highest recommended increase in that category in at least three decades, according to TAL figures dating back to 1988. The amount could climb further, depending on things like apartment upgrades and property taxes.

The guidelines are for the year beginning April 2, 2025 through April 1, 2026. The TAL created a tool (new window) to help landlords and tenants reach an agreement on an increase.

In Quebec, a tenant is allowed to refuse a rent increase from a landlord. If the two parties cannot agree on a number, the landlord can file an application with the TAL to modify the lease within a month of receiving the tenant’s reply.

When taking into account capital expenditures, the TAL granted an increase of 6.9 per cent on average in the cases that were brought before it in 2024 — the highest increase in at least 15 years (new window).

Critics call on government to do more

The cost of renting in many parts of Quebec, particularly Montreal, has shot up in recent years. Advocates argue the TAL hasn’t done enough (new window) to keep rents affordable.

Rents in Montreal went up by an average of 7.7 per cent in 2023, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (new window), even though the TAL’s recommended rental increase was much lower than that (new window). Rent climbed even higher — by 10 per cent — in units with a new tenant.

WATCH | This is what renters can expect in 2025:

Here’s how much rent could go up in Quebec in 2025

Tenants living in homes where heat is not included could see their rent increase 5.9 per cent in 2025. That’s based on calculations Quebec’s rental board releases each year, which landlords can use before sending a rent increase notice to a tenant.

The tenants’ rights group RCLALQ swiftly condemned the latest guidelines, saying they would put further strain on low-income Quebecers. The group said the way the TAL calculates the guidelines needs to change.

No region has been spared these increases, which have had the effect of making the situation of hundreds of thousands of tenants more precarious, by seriously threatening their right to maintain their tenancy and access to housing, the group said in a statement.

Andrés Fontecilla, Québec Solidaire’s housing critic, called on the Quebec government to introduce lasting solutions, starting with improved rent control.

Amy Darwish, co-ordinator of the Comité d’action de Parc-Extension in Montreal, described the potential increase of 5.9 per cent as catastrophic.

She said her group is calling for an immediate rent freeze, saying it’s necessary the provincial government intervene before there are runaway rent increases. In the longer term, she said, her group wants rent control in the form of a lease registry and rent ceiling.

Recommendation will allow landlords to ‘catch up’

According to a Quebec landlords’ association spokesperson, Eric Sansoucy, the increase suggested by the TAL will allow owners to catch up with the cost of inflation.

Landlords have seen their costs explode in recent years, said Sanscoucy, with the Corporation des Propriétaires Immobiliers du Québec.

In a media scrum Tuesday, Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau said the real solution is to increase the supply of housing.

Duranceau stressed that the government is working on that, with some 24,000 housing units currently under construction. She said special powers should be given to cities to enable them to build more housing.

The minister said the government cannot interfere in the TAL’s decisions, as it is an independent tribunal. She said the TAL makes recommendations based on factual economic data, and it’s a calculation that is done autonomously.

It’s very difficult for a lot of tenants right now, said Duranceau. The real solution to this is to increase the offer of any type of housing units.