New Brunswick to drop rental cap by the end of this year

New Brunswick’s rent cap is on track to end as planned on Dec. 31, despite calls for an extension to help renters deal with rising inflation.

The rent cap, which was introduced for 2022, limited increases to 3.8 per cent.

The province's housing minister says that come January, if renters feel they’re getting unfair rent increases they can go through the Residential Tenancies Tribunal.

“We put measures in place over the last year and a half to help tenants,” said Jill Green, the minister responsible for housing.

“We’ve also had to put measures in place to help developers because our vacancy rate is our biggest issue here and we need more units and we need more development.”

She says the government’s approach to the matter is balanced, by helping tenants while encouraging development.

Green says the cap is being dropped because it hurt development.

The New Brunswick government is also amending the Residential Tenancies Act to extend the application period for the review of a rent increase from 30 to 60 days.

Changes will also give authority to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal to phase in over a period of up to three years, rent increases that are within the market value for the condition and size of the unit as compared to similar units in the same building or neighbourhood.