Why the hell is it so expensive to rent in Halifax? Why do complete dives cost an arm and a leg, and why are landlords allowed to keep raising rent? The argument is, people will pay it, so we charge it. But people HAVE to pay it because there is no where else to live! Rent here is now on par with Toronto, except there are fewer jobs for less money, SO WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE??? Oh and I guess I could move further out of the city, if public transportation wasn’t so shitty. This city is becoming unlivable on minimum wage, I wonder why there is a homeless problem… —Heading for Cheaper Pastures
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2011.
AHAHAHA on par with Toronto?
Yeah, maybe the areas with the most crack houses.
Try looking outside the city core. You can find lots of reasonably priced places in the ‘burbs. My new 3 bed in CPW costs about a grand a month with underground parking and utilities included. W/D in unit too (and two bathrooms and wood floors/ceramic).
Warning, shut the fuck up. If the regulars didn’t come here, this place would be dead.
the rent is high, mainly because of the live in pets they supply. bedbugs, roaches(not the kind you smoke), etc., and if you don’t wanna pay it, then you have to find another place. i’m glad i live where i do, hardly ever a rent increase, and when it does go up, you can bet it is for a very good real reason. that’s why i have been here 7 years, and only one small increase.
OP, the owners raise the rent to pay for the mortgage on the place, and also to pay for their own house mortgage. At least that’s how my friends do it to their tenants….and yes, those tenants still continue to pay the rent 🙂 Woohoo for profits.
I agree 100%. It’s not that I can’t afford to live in Halifax it’s just that I don’t feel it’s worth it, I can save hundreds per month and be within a 10 minute drive from DT Hali. It really is just as expensive as MTL or Toronto, and there absolutely is less money to be made here for most people. My buddy had a place on Rector street in the north end of Halifax for 500 bucks a month tho, 1 bedroom. I believe that included everything too. The good thing about Halifax is the commutes aren’t all that bad, you could live in Dartmouth or Cole Harbour or even Sackville, or one of the suburbs on the Hali side like CP or Timberlea and still be really close to the city. That’s one thing about here that’s better than Toronto. Takes at least an hour to get anywhere in that city.
Montreal has been said to be one of the cheapest cities to live in.
Downtown halifax is ridiculous rent-wise, but try getting a one bedroom right downtown in Toronto under 1500 bucks. blech.
In any event, I agree, Tommy. There are some nice spots just outside the peninsula that don’t charge an arm and a leg to rent to.
Also: some people prefer to rent because they don’t have to worry about the maintenance that comes with owning a house. My mom always told me: take your mortgage payment and double it and that’s what you’ll likely pay each month. My parents sold their house a few years back, banked the money they made off of it (they sold it for about triple what they paid for it) and moved into an apartment. Now that my dad gets his old age pension with his CPP, ALL their bills are paid for. They have no debt and just have rent and cable/internet/phone, car insurance and food to pay for each month. They paid cash for their car. And my mom’s total salary is 100% disposable income. She makes a good amount of $$$ so she banks 2/3s of it for retirement in her investment account and they use the rest to do WHATEVER THEY WANT.
And they don’t have to get up at 7am to shovel a fucking driveway/walkway and they don’t have to worry about getting the house painted, or roof fixed, or mowing the lawn, or replacing their oil tank, etc…. Great retirement living if you ask me.
So suck it, sebastard. Got that 92 surburban paid off yet?
Ever hear of the laws of supply and demand?
You can only charge what the market will support.
Obviously there are tenants willing to pay the asking rate.
Not to mention higher property taxes than Toronto, higher HST than Toronto, higher fuel/electrical prices than Toronto all thanks to the NDP who raised the taxes. i know some people will say that renters don’t pay property taxes but that’s bs because it is calculated into the rent we pay.
I dunno, it just doesn’t seem right to me that people think minimum wage should allow them to live wherever they want, pay for their rent, food, bills, car etc. If you could pay for all that on minimum wage would there be any drive for you to do more with your life?
agreed melectric. You can’t expect to live in a nice area making minimum wage. Maybe if two people were living together both making MW. Even then you’re not going to get anywhere near the heart of the city, if you can afford a place at all. Life’s tough OP, get used to it. Gotta live within your means. I previously posted I plan to try to leave the city in about a year, I do agree with some of your gripes, but minimum wage is minimum wage, it may be higher in other provinces, but so is the cost of living. Don’t leave thinking that you’ll do any better in any other city with no work experience. You might get lucky but I highly doubt it.
Fuck you melectric. I work my ass off for min wage, and am trying to get ahead but it isn’t easy when your life takes an unexpected turn for the worse and you end up sick and unable to work for a few years. Any previous career move was halted and it isn’t easy to restart. There are so many over-educated students out there that they end up getting the relatively decent jobs that people like me used to get. It really shouldn’t be TOO much to ask to be able to eat on min wage. I don’t own a car, that’s impossible with a shitty wage like mine. A $70 bus pass to get to work is difficult as it is.
In other news i went to the woods the other day and guess what i saw a bear doing?
I think you misinterpreted mel’s comment, BWN. I think what she was trying to say is that you should be able to live on min wage, but don’t expect to be able to live anywhere you want. You have to live within your means, like Tommy said.
I don’t think I misinterpreted all of her comment. I realize she is saying that you shouldn’t be able to live wherever you want, but paying for food and necessary bills should be manageable when you are living on min wage. I try to live within my means. I pay for rent, power, landline phone (no cell, which is fine), internet (no cable, which is also fine), storage (which I have because I live in a tiny bach), a bus pass, and then try to have healthy food in my fridge. But as always, 3 or 4 days before payday I don’t have a cent in the bank and the cupboards are pretty much bare. It really shouldn’t be too much to ask to be able to live a decent life when I work really hard and am trying to find something better. A movie, on cheap night, would be nice. That’s not living extravagantly, it just would be nice to have some semblance of a life outside of my shitty job. I work my ass off and should be able to do even the smallest thing for myself. First Choice is not my first choice to go to for a haircut but it’s all I can afford. Anyway, obviously I’m touchy about this as I am getting ready for another night of work in which I’ll earn a whopping $60 or so for after taxes. Living on just over $1100 a month is extremely difficult. Being a working poor person sucks. 🙂
I find with minimum wage its really hard to eat healthy so i’ll agree with you there, yeah rent is going up its ridiculous now that living out west is on par with here, except you get paid more there and dont have to rely on the call centre economy to supplement your income.
Halifax is like my cat, it hates change.
um… not quite.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/0…
montreal’s no peach either… cheap my ass.
It’s expensive here, but only because all the good paying jobs are either scooped up by old pricks who never leave them… or douches like seb who like to watch the world around them burn.
Seb sells cars. I’m convinced. Probably used ones. I wouldn’t exactly call that an A++ job.
Anyway, Montreal USED to be cheap to live in when I did some research a few years back while deciding where to go.
Quebec is actually a cheap city to live in. Properties are really inexpensive. If I was fluent in French I’d move there in a heartbeat, especially since they’re always looking for people who are fluent in English (along with the French).
Anyway, bitchwhennecessary — what type of min wage job do you have? You could always try the call centre thing and if it works out you can be promoted and make more money. Or maybe get loans and go back to school? You’re exactly right when it comes to eating healthy foods and stuff on min wage.
Kinda off topic: what always boggles my mind are the people who are panhandling or poor/homeless yet are grossly obese. I saw this one chick — I know for a fact she has an apartment, but she was panhandling outside the shoppers on SGR yesterday… she is easily morbidly obese. How the hell are people who are apparently so poor they have to beg for money on the streets still fat as hell? You’d think their lack of funds for food would show on their waistlines at some point.
I dunno, makes me suspicious, s’all. Junk food isn’t that cheap, either! A bag of ruffles is easily over 3 bucks now and a bottle of pop is 2.50… you can get a frozen can of pure fruit juice and a salad pack with dressing for the combined total of the ruffles and the pop!
And a KFC meal is like almost 10 bucks now for one person and 20+ for a bucket…
yeah kitty, i wish it was only 20 bucks a bucket. i put out 50 bucks last night for a 20 piece, gravy, slaw salad fries and a 2 litre pop. terrible it is in the world, when fucking large bologna cost more than steak in some stores.
It’s about $1,500/month for a mediocre 2 bedroom apartment in Toronto.. it’s about $700 here.
I’m a landlord. I own two houses on the peninsula that I rent out. The rent is probably what many people would consider “high” – $1400 for my two-bedroom, and $1700 for my three bedroom.
I just did my taxes a couple weeks ago. Want to know how much I made, on both of them combined, last year? $322. That works out to a profit of $13 per month, per house!
Believe me, I’m not complaining. I know I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to own multiple homes. I didn’t purchase these properties to make money off the rent. I bought them as a long-term investment. My point is that not all landlords are money-hungry jerks looking to make a quick buck off the backs of minimum-wage-earning tenants. The rent I charge (and this goes for most of the people I know who have income properties) just covers the mortgage, insurance on the property (cant rent without it!) and water.
So why are rents so high in Halifax? Because that’s what it costs to buy and maintain a home in Halifax.
Thanks for that HH, really gives a different perspective. It’s true, that’s what my last landlord told me too. It’s not about making money its about paying the bills.
Yeah, work’s hard to find in MTL, even me being bilingual. It’s not growing as fast as other cities. It’s on an island let’s not forget, it could never turn into a sprawling metropolis like Calgary or Toronto.
And you REALLY don’t need to know a lick of french to live in Montreal, unless you’re in a french neighborhood. I never really had to use it. Toronto is supposedly a good place to go if you’re bilingual, because it is much more rare than in Montreal.
Life’s tough everywhere, especially on minimum wage.
To HH’s point, I don’t doubt that the rent in Hali is justified compared to what it costs to own and maintain the property, to ME, though, it’s not worth it because Halifax doesn’t have the big city vibe and the entertainment scene I’m looking for, plus the weather stinks.
As someone who also makes minimum wage and whose rent just went up a whopping 6% (75$/month – $1000/yr – $13 000 for the entire building) I can definitely relate. My landlord is making more in EXTRA rent than I made all of last year. On top of this, I start my job before public transit runs. Therefore I’m unable to live beyond walking distance of my minimum wage job. I cannot afford a car, due to the low wage. My choice is give up my quality of life and stay, find another apartment nearby (which will also be incredibly expensive), or quit my job to find another minimum wage job where rent is cheaper. These are not choices I should have to make. Why doesn’t Nova Scotia have caps on rental increases. BC has a 2.5% annual increase. Manitoba 1.5%. PEI 2%. Quebec 2.7%. So why the hell am I getting a 6% increase on a building that is falling into disrepair and paying more for rent than a morgage? So can I expect to live in a nice area living on minimum wage? I could, before my rent increased.
I live in a 1 bedroom plus den for $650 a month. This includes water and underground parking. It is unlikely my landlord will raise my rent, because he’s a good guy, even though property taxes and water have increased. My difficulty isn’t necessarily with the rent (I totally get where you’re coming from HH, I’ve been house hunting and all of that stuff isn’t cheap, especially on the peninsula) it’s just hard to cope with the costs of other things you don’t have control over – like heat. While I can decide how warm I want to keep it, the windows are drafty and the floors (with the unheated garage underneath) are freezing – but of course I didn’t know this until I moved in, and electricity has jumped in cost twice since then. Add in the jump in gas prices for my fiance who drives, the jump in bridge tolls, and then finding out my office is moving and it takes 3 buses and an hour to get there, and you have a very different picture than the $650 a month sweet rental deal.
So, in reality I think it’s more than rent. Because yes, rent is high sometimes, but so are many other costs of living. I don’t think you can blame landlords for this one.
I’d like to know where these so called “cheap” apartments are in Halifax. I make an Ok wage, however with other life requirements (student loans etc etc) there is no way I could afford to pay $700+utilities for an apartment. I currently rent a room in a house, however would love to have my own place, but it seems to just not be possible. I get that the cost of heat, water etc also factors in but for someone with a single income and other financial commitments its just not feasible to rent an apartment in this city.
Have you applied for repayment assistance for your student loan, salsasue? My payments are supposed to be $1400 a month and with repayment assistance I pay much much less than that.
My income is decent, but average, and after taxes and deductions I’d have no problem paying $700/month for an apartment.
Where are you looking, salsasue? I’ve found tons of places with one bedrooms in the 700-750 range that include utilities — all in a decent area of clayton park. And with the company I rent from — they have a wide range of buildings with some one bedrooms (in decent areas in well maintained buildings) for 550 and UNDER. A friend of mine rents from them and pays $740 for a two level, 1.5 bath, 2 bedroom unit — parking, heat and water and a dishwasher all included. It’s in clayton park close to dunbrack and radcliff.
Unless you want roommates, you’re not going to get an apartment for 400 or below. So stop expecting it, people! Even in freaking fairview and spryfield, there are likely no 400 dollar a month apartments. That’s just the way things are these days.
Do a little leg work and you can find lots of cheaper places. If I can afford to live in an $700/month apartment on my salary with $98k in student loans and STILL have money left over to put in my investment account and some left over as pure disposable income… I doubt it would be too hard for anyone else making an “average” single income wage.
And yes, that includes shelling out over $150 (WITH a medical plan) each month for drugz.
FYI…Student loans doesn’t exactly advertise this but you can also apply for “Debt Reduction” I believe the only requirement is that you have exhausted all of your interest free relief periods.
The paperwork is not bad – 1 or 2 pages on your current income and expenses. The amount of reduction is calculated from this info.
I applied when I was making slightly more than min. wage a few years ago and my loan went from $10,880 to $1014…yup, that’s over $9000 that I didn’t have to pay back!
When I looked at my bank statement for the first time I swore someone just forgot a zero somewhere 🙂
There is a more sinister force at work in Halifax among the rental properties. The high rents are caused by landlords not wanting certain groups to rent from them. Those are on welfare or any kind of government assistance are allotted a certain amount each month to be paid for rent. If your rates fall under that threshold, as a landlord you can be subject to a call from said department requiring you to rent them an apartment for one of their clients. You cannot turn them down because of how the money is getting paid, so instead you hike the rents above the threshold. Simple enough?
Except if, like me, you’re not on welfare but working. For well above minimum wage – call center wages, even, with a family. Suddenly, that nice little $700 a month two-bedroom a few blocks from the bus stop you take to work, in that somewhat quiet neighbourhood, is now going for $995 and you have to choose between paying it or moving to another area of the city – one with much higher crime and surrounded by apartment buildings with limited bus service and virtually no commerce. Meanwhile, that little quiet neighbourhood is about be overrun by the only people willing and able to pay that kind of money for that kind of place – the half-dozen or so 18-to-21-year-olds who’ll chip in $150 a piece for the privilege of “having their own place” and partying every night.
What is the current vacancy rate in this city these days? Apartment buildings and condos are _still_ being built! Who are all these people they’re looking to rent these units and were are they coming from? And why is it that I have to struggle? Are landlords banking on tenants going to the food bank?
One thing about owning a home, that i didn’t see mentioned, is when its paid for…all you have is the tax bill .
For somone outside the city, the fewer services…ie. no water or sewage the cheaper it is property tax wise.
I used to live right across the street from Penhorn lake. It was a nice 3 bedroom home but taxes were crazy for that place. Taxes in the city are nuts, out here I pay less than $300.00 a year. For a little over 2 acre lot, river frontage in back & 300 ft on the road, but its about 60 kms from Dartmouth. So a lot of people who don’t own a vehicle can’t really live here. Also when I last negotiated my mortgage the priced I paid dropped & before next year is over it’ll be paid off.
So no more mortgage & no rent.
As for maintenance, I have a steel roof, I’ll probably be dead before they have to do anything to the roof. Vinyl insulated windows are only 4/5 years old.
I burn wood & have an oil fired boiler for heat/hotwater. All my oil receipts for 2010 were just under $1000.00 & I go through about 4 cords of wood a year.
Sure you can find real money pits for homes & pay a fortune to heat them. High maintenence costs & huge tax bills but that isn’t everywhere.
As for the comment of taking your mortgage & doubling it as actual costs. That may be true in some places, it isn’t carved in stone & once that mortgage is gone. You’re really seeing a difference. Burn wood when you’re home, cuts costs again & if you do like I do & haul it yourself its cheaper than delivered. One of my neighbors is constantly bringing hardwood pallets from Burnside where he works. He chunks them up & burns those for the few cents in electricity to run a skil saw.
Unlike an apartment/rental home. My neighbor has put a solar & wind electrical system in, his bills dropped to less than $20.00 every 2 months. Now he’s added additional panels & a second windmill. He no longer pays for electricity. You can’t do that renting.
I’ve done both, renting & owned homes, owning a place will get cheaper. Renting will always mean you have to pay for the place as well as the utilities etc. Even if the rent rarely goes up after 20, 25, 30, ,35, 40 years you’re still paying rent & you will definately be paying more !
i have zombie survival plans all worked out mr. more…if said plans don’t work out i’ll come knockin^^
paingirl, I wasn’t knocking people who pay rent. I paid rent for years, because i couldn’t afford a down payment & the ‘scary’ boogie man of large home repairs etc.
But when you own a place, you build up equity & when you decide to move, you can take some of what you spent with you because you sell the place. With renting all you take are the memories, so later in life if you want to downsize to a condo or apartment, you don’t have that ‘nestegg’ that you built up by purchasing a place…that’s all I meant.
i wasn’t being sarcastic, it sounds like a great setup you have. we moved here so we could buy a house, the mortgage w/taxes is still cheaper than rent