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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Renters at various Northern Property REIT-owned apartments can't be blamed if they winced - or worse - when they received letters notifying them rents will increase in July.

For some, it will be the third straight increase in as many years, this one coming in a time where many don't have an extra dollar to spare.

While Northern Property did not return calls for comment on how much rent prices would increase, or for what buildings and whom, one Yellowknife MLA said the complaints are already rolling in.

"From what I can understand, speaking to a number of constituents, most rents seem to be going up $100 a month - which is quite a jump," said Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy.

"Constituents clearly have concerns considering the price of the cost of living in the Territories," he added.

The NWT Residential Tenancies Act says rents can only be increased once every 12 months, but there is no cap as to how much.

Abernethy is part of a group of regular MLAs pushing for changes to the Residential Tenancies Act for the NWT. The group is calling for the act to specify how much rents can be increased, or provide an opportunity for tenants to seek recourse if they believe their rent was increased by too much.

"There is a concern about the degree that rents can be increased. Rents can only be increased once a year according to the act, but there's no limit put on how much that rent can increase," he said.

Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro first voiced her concerns with the act in February, after some of her constituents experienced rent increases in the summer of 2008.

"Depending upon where they were living and whether it was month-to-month rent or yearly rents were anywhere from 10 to 15 per cent ... which seemed a bit much to me," said Bisaro.

Bisaro said she wasn't sure if rental caps were the answer - housing analysts warn they can have unintended consequences, like stilting new development, but added something needs to be done. She suggested it would be worthwhile to appoint an ombudsman.

If the increase "is an excessive amount - who defines excess?" Bisaro asked. If increases are too high, she added, the rental officer "doesn't have any jurisdiction over that, and that's my concern."

Bisaro said she felt it was within the rights of the landlord to make a reasonable profit, "but it begs the question as to whether or not the rental increases coming up are justified and how does somebody find that out."

The only recourse for the tenant may be to move out, and in Yellowknife's tight market, sometimes that is easier said than done.

According to the standard letter Northern Property sent out, rents are going up "due to an increase in our operating costs."

From what Abernethy and Bisaro have heard, the jump in rents has been blamed on fuel cost increases.

Nearly a quarter of the company's earnings are generated by its properties in the NWT, totalling about $36.6 million, and of that, more than 70 per cent of revenues are generated by properties in Yellowknife.

In its annual filings, the company acknowledged the slowdown in diamond mining is affecting Yellowknife, but added "the rental market remains healthy."

In 2009, the vacancy rate for Northern Property's Yellowknife units was only 0.5 per cent, or 2,233 square feet.

Richard Goatcher, senior market analyst for the North for the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC), said a tight market like Yellowknife's gives landlords the advantage.

In such a case "There's not a lot of competition, and (landlords) are less concerned about turnovers because people don't have as many options as they would if vacancies rates were five per cent," said Goatcher.

"When your vacancy is down around one per cent, the landlord has the advantage, and a lot of them will use that advantage to increase rents to what the market will bear," he said.

Goatcher said the CMHC is still formulating its outlooks as the economy softens, and added the last time vacancy rates went up in Yellowknife because of out-migration was in the late '90s - although he has noticed, on net, people are moving out of the North.

Outmigration may have a silver lining, however.

"That should free up some apartments and that should help to rein in the rent increases," said Goatcher.