Editor:
The editorial in the May 11 edition (“Rent gouging key factor in alarming stats”) is laughable in its total absence of logic.
This piece suggests that because incomes here are 20 to 25 per cent below the provincial average, landlords should lower their rents accordingly. Would landlords then be able to ask for a similar reduction in their insurance costs, mortgage rates, property taxes and repair costs due to lower incomes here? I think not.
Landlords ask for rents that will cover their expenses, which are significant. As mentioned in the front-page article, there is little purpose-built rental stock here, which means that local landlords are not property barons, but ordinary folk like you and me.
It is not the job of landlords to subsidize local businesses. If incomes here are 20 per cent below the provincial average, why don’t local employers raise salaries? Now that would be logical!
Note: I am not a landlord – just a person who prefers rational thinking.
Bev Burgoyne, Gibsons
