Scaling Up This is the rallying cry of the Montréal Abordable Initiative and the guiding principle of the brief our alliance submitted yesterday to Minister France-Élaine Duranceau and members of the Land Use Planning Commission as part of the consultations on Bill 31.
ACHAT’s members are key players in the creation and long-term operation of social and affordable housing. Our business model has proven its effectiveness: our combined real estate portfolio already includes 4,800 housing units and the capacity to add several thousand more. Now is the time to lay the foundation for reaching the 20% non-profit housing target in the rental market and to put a definitive end to the cycle of housing crises.
Our proposals, some of which would have no cost or minimal cost to the state, fall into two areas of action: protecting the rental stock and increasing the supply of non-profit housing. They include:
- Implementing a mandatory province-wide rent registry to provide tenants with full market transparency
- Developing portfolio-based financing mechanisms for large non-profit housing corporations
- Exempting 100% non-profit housing projects from the Quebec Sales Tax (QST)
- Allowing municipalities in Quebec to offer differentiated property tax rates for 100% non-profit housing projects
- Allowing municipalities to apply differentiated zoning for proponents developing 100% non-profit housing projects
For the future National Housing Action Plan, we believe that a strong, cross-cutting approach would benefit both for-profit and non-profit housing providers, as well as tenants across Quebec, regardless of their income or background.
Read the proposals submitted to the Minister (PDF in french only)