Landlord tears: the most important housing affordability metric

Edmonton is absolutely crushing the most important measure of housing affordability: landlord tears.

Let's drink.

Ah. Hints of desperation, notes of negative cash flow. A beautiful vintage.

We've already talked about how Edmonton is succeeding at making housing more affordable. Thanks to our new zoning bylaw that legalized more housing types across the city, supply has been rising, rents have been stabilizing, and people are moving to where they want to live, not an hour's drive into the suburbs.

In fact, Edmonton recently had the second lowest inflation rate in Canada, largely because housing costs aren't skyrocketing here like they are in similar Canadian cities.

The tears

But, I promised landlord tears, so let's take a look.

This is a post from the Alberta Real Estate Investors Network on Facebook. It's a group for property investors and landlords, and what they're seeing, and what scares them, is a real competition between landlords.

They warn right now tenants have options, lots of them, and that landlords must be strategic, flexible, and realistic with pricing and incentives.

You need to be strategic, flexible, and realistic (!!!) with pricing and incentives.

Alberta Real Estate Investors Network, Facebook

That's three exclamation points. It's the sound of a landlord realizing that their captive market just found an escape hatch.

They're offering free rent, gift cards, parking incentives. It means for the first time in a long time, tenants actually have leverage.

And that's exactly what happens when you stop artificially restricting housing with outdated zoning.

The bylaw is working

Despite the op-eds and social media campaigns from homeowners that want to make sure that you can't live in their neighbourhoods, we can obviously see that our three-year-old zoning bylaw is working.

So, stay hydrated.