Rent jacked up 200% on tenants of historic central Edmonton apartment building

Tenants of a downtown Edmonton apartment building are calling a 200 per cent rent increase unfair and unjust. CTV News Edmonton's Nav Sangha reports.

The new owners of a historic Edmonton apartment building are jacking up the rent on its tenants by close to 200 per cent.

That’s leaving at least one resident of the Annamoe Mansion in the central Wîhkwêntôwin neighbourhood frustrated and angry at what he thinks is a move to force tenants out.

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“This is not any sort of notice that is allowing people to stay here,” said resident Tim Kenny, whose rent on his one-bedroom unit is set to increase to $2,695 per month from $895 on July 1.

“It’s basically, ‘Read between the lines. Get out. We’re going to force you out by rent increase rather than just a flat eviction.‘”

ARH Holdings, which in January bought the building located on the western end of the Victoria Promenade that overlooks the North Saskatchewan River valley, posted notices on the doors of each unit on Tuesday informing tenants of the rent hike.

The Edmonton-based property developer told CTV News Edmonton in a statement the three-storey, 25-apartment building built in 1914 requires extensive renovations as it “has not been well maintained over the years.”

Coupled with rising costs of construction, ARH Holdings said “it has become necessary to adjust the income to keep pace with these expenses,” adding they plan to add new amenities along with renovations.

“Restoring/preserving a building of this nature is considerably more expensive than standard renovations,” they said in the statement, also pointing out that rent currently charged to residents is significantly below market value for the area and location.

“We do not want any tenants to vacate. We prefer if they all would, in fact, stay.”

Unlike provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia, Alberta does not use rent control to limit how much property owners can increase rates, although it does have rules restricting how often landlords can raise them.

Ashley Stevenson, the press secretary for the province’s seniors, community and social services ministry, told CTV News Edmonton in a statement the government is “focused on increasing the housing supply” rather than considering rent controls, which she said is a “disastrous” process that has harmed rental markets in places it’s used.

Stevenson said the province is also expanding the use of rent supplements “to better use existing rental market capacity.”

Still, Kenny is left with sticker shock, calling the hefty increase unjust and unfair despite having enjoyed a relatively low rental rate for the two-and-a-half years the master’s student has lived at the Annamoe Mansion.

“I know that people are thinking, ‘You had it great. Count your blessings. You should have been saving up for a rainy day, etc.,’ but nothing prepares anybody for a 200-per-cent rent increase,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday.

“There is nothing humane about it.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nav Sangha