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A new report on rentals in Halifax says mom-and-pop landlords are nearly a thing of the past.

Dalhousie Legal Aid looked at the owners of rental units and found only 20 own 56 per cent of units.

Community legal worker Hannah Main says governments in some provinces say they want to balance the needs of tenants and landlords.

But Main hopes this report gets people to question that.

“It does seem that balancing the needs of landlords and tenants could mean putting a few landlords on the same footing as hundreds of thousands of tenants whose whose right is to have housing,” says Main.

In the study, Dal Legal Aid looked at the 50,759 units for rent in Halifax visible through public data. There were 1,420 owners. Overall, the units identified were 77.2 per cent of registered rentals in the city.

Main says it is important to know who owns units, because big companies are more likely to raise rents and let conditions deteriorate.

“There’s research that shows that the bigger or the more financialized a landlord is, the worse things generally are for tenants, so in terms of affordability, in terms of evictions, and in terms of habitability of units,” says Main.

She adds that she hopes this gets people to question who influences government policy on things like rent caps.

In a statement, the Department of Service Nova Scotia, says the rent cap is set to expire in December 2027, and any decision about that will “be communicated well in advance of December 31, 2027.”

They also say that it is their job to listen to both renters and landlords.

“In fact, many of the amendments we make to the Residential Tenancies Act is in response to their feedback and feedback from groups who represent them including Dal Legal Aid,” wrote a spokesperson for the department.

They add that the input from Dal Legal Aid led to them changing the rules around subletting, and now tenants can not sublet their apartment for more than the rent charged by the landlord.

Dal Legal Aid’s study did not look at buildings with four or fewer units.

However, they say this represents about 22.8 per cent of the market. But, even if they did look at those buildings, big companies and who they call “professional landlords” would still have the majority of registered rentals.

The department says they factor in those.

“Small and medium sized landlords are a very important part of our rental market, especially in rural communities,” the department wrote.

“The solution to the housing crisis is more housing which is why government is investing to build more housing, including affordable housing, student housing, and housing for healthcare workers, across the province.”