Quebec tenants call for rent freeze and stronger protections
Posted October 11, 2025 9:07 am.
Last Updated October 11, 2025 12:24 pm.
A province-wide rent freeze and stronger protections for renters are at the heart of new demands brought to the National Assembly by a coalition of Quebec tenants’ rights groups.
The Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ) is calling on the provincial government to halt rent hikes, reject new regulatory proposals on rent increases, and overhaul how rent control works in the province.
Their petition, tabled this week by Québec solidaire MNA Andrés Fontecilla, includes demands supported by nearly 15,000 tenants and allies across the province.
Petition targets rent hikes and landlord reforms
The petition calls for an immediate freeze on rent increases starting in 2026 and the rejection of a second draft regulation on rent increases introduced last month by former housing minister France-Élaine Duranceau.
According to RCLALQ, the proposed changes would allow landlords to pass the full cost of renovations on to tenants and encourage what they describe as an “inflationary spiral” in rent increases.
“The government needs to understand that it’s failing — their framework is failing,” said Shannon Franssen, interim coordinator at RCLALQ. “It needs to be reformed, and in the meantime we need to stop increasing rents.”
Franssen said that in Montreal alone, rents have increased by 70 per cent over the past five years.
“They’ve already increased so much… that tenants can no longer handle these astronomical increases that we’re hearing year after year,” she said.
She said a revised framework should include a public rent registry, stricter limits on annual increases based on actual building maintenance costs, and new legal obligations for landlords to justify any hikes above the standard rate.
“We’re asking is first of all for laws around a rent registry… right now there’s no real way for a tenant to find out what was charged to the last tenant,” she said. “Many landlords… increase the rents illegally in between tenants.”
Landlords warn of ‘unintended consequences’
CORPIQ, which represents property owners in Quebec, said it supports the need to help struggling tenants — but argues a province-wide freeze could backfire.
Spokesperson Éric Sansoucy pointed to the 500,000 Quebecers currently receiving housing support, either through social housing or rent supplements. He warned that freezing rents across the board could make it harder for landlords to afford repairs and keep older buildings in good shape.
“We have to go along with what’s said Sonia Bélanger, the minister responsable de l’habitation in Chamber when she was asked with that request,” he said. “Basically we understand and we agree that we have to give support to tenants who are in a more difficult financial situation.”
“But to move forward with a general freeze could also bring some unintended consequences. So we need to find that balance where the landlords have enough revenues and resources to be able to maintain and renovate those buildings.”
Sansoucy noted that 80 per cent of Quebec’s apartments were built before 1980 and said many require upgrades, including energy-efficiency retrofits.
CORPIQ backs proposed regulation
While tenant groups want the new draft regulation scrapped, CORPIQ views it as progress.
“We think it’s a step forward into that balance,” Sansoucy said. “We just went through lots of inflation and the renovation, construction costs went up, the interest rate are not the same. So we have to make sure… we’re getting closer to that necessary balance for everybody.”
Regarding a rent cap and public rent registry, he warned that overregulation could discourage investment and necessary maintenance.
“We have to again look into maybe what said recently CMHC about rent control,” he said. “Rent control, if it’s too radical, it will again impact the capacity to renovate, maintain the buildings and also attract investment to build new housing.”
Sansoucy said more public support is needed to help owners modernize housing stock.
“It could be government support, it could be a tax credit… it could be a subvention as well,” he said. “So it’s all together — tenants, government and owners — that we can make that transition possible.”
Mixed views from Montrealers
CityNews spoke to some Montrealers who expressed concern about rising rents but differed on whether a full freeze is the right move.
One woman said she wouldn’t go as far as freezing rent entirely but supports stronger limits.
“Maybe not freeze it, but limit it,” she said. “Rents are extremely expensive right now. And a lot of people are having a hard time paying their rents. So we need some sort of rent control. But rent control doesn’t necessarily [mean] no augmentation.”
She added that if rents keep rising, it would put even more pressure on struggling renters: “It’s already tight and it would just become tighter.”
A male student shared how rent keeps rising every year.
“I’m not working now, so I’m just a student,” he said. “So, like, I don’t want to pay like more. I’m paying my rent and paying my groceries and everything. But every year… they increase the rent. They do it like $100 more every year.”
Another man said rent has become the biggest expense for younger people.
“I think there would be some usefulness to it,” he said. “It’s definitely the most common issue in people millennial and underage, and it’s a big stretch for people. I think it’s been increasingly a large amount of where wages are going to.”
He said a freeze “could be one possibility that could ease the stress of the housing crisis.”
A landlord also expressed support for stricter limits on rent, saying the market has moved out of step with people’s incomes.
“Yes. I think the government should freeze rent across the province because of real estate speculation,” he said. “Rents are too expensive for the cost of living…… People have trouble making ends meet. Rent should be fixed at a limit, without a doubt.”
Waiting for a meeting with the minister
RCLALQ says it has requested a meeting with Quebec’s new housing minister, Sonia Bélanger, and hopes she will take a different approach from her predecessor.
“We’re hoping that this new minister has a better understanding of why the legal framework wasn’t working and also will be more receptive to our suggestions,” said Franssen. “The old minister was much more on the side of landlords. We’re hoping that won’t be the case this time.”
For now, the government has not committed to a freeze — but the debate over how to manage housing costs in Quebec shows no sign of cooling down.
