Quebec solidaire slams housing minister after link to house 'flipping' project surfaces

France-Elaine Duranceau smiles as she is sworn in as Quebec Housing minister, during a ceremony at the Quebec Legislature, in Quebec City, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Quebec's housing minister is back in the spotlight this week after media reports linked her to a real estate "flipping" project in which a Montreal duplex was converted into luxury condos.

The revelations prompted fierce backlash from Quebec's Second Opposition party, Québec solidaire (QS), who are outspoken critics of the practice.

"She herself is part of the real estate speculators who, among other things -- and this is one of the causes -- are causing us to live in a housing crisis," MNA Ruba Ghazal charged at the QS national council on Saturday.

France-Élaine Duranceau is listed as a shareholder and administrator for the company that purchased the duplex in 2019, a few years before she became housing minister, joint reporting from outlets Ricochet and Pivot revealed.

According to the reports, the two-storey building was bought for roughly $500,000 and converted into five condos that went for $400,000 to $800,000 apiece.

It's an example of house-flipping: a legal but controversial practice in which investors purchase homes to renovate and sell them for a profit.

QS housing critic Andrés Fontecilla addressed the revelations on Twitter.

"Is Ms. Duranceau the minister for the real estate industry or a minister who has the common interest at heart? Its former speculative practices, the real estate 'flip' informs us that the interest of tenants is not the first of its concerns," he wrote.

The news comes days after Quebec introduced a its proposed house law reform. 

Among other changes, Bill 31 would allow landlords to reject lease transfers, a mechanism some tenants use to avoid rental increases when moving to a new dwelling.

Under the current law, a tenant can transfer their lease to another person as long as they notify their landlord in writing. When the new renter moves in, they typically inherit the monthly rate from the previous tenant.

"You can't use a right that isn't yours to assign a lease to someone else on terms that you decide when it's not your building. A tenant who wants to do that has to invest in real estate and take the risks that go with it," Duranceau told reporters earlier this month when asked about the bill.

She later apologized for the "insensitivity" of her remarks.

Also speaking at the QS convention on Saturday, party member and former MNA Émilise Lessard-Therrien accused Duranceau of being out of touch.

"What bothers me about this is the constant realization that our politicians are close to the elite," she said. "They're not close to the issues Quebecers are dealing with."

Duranceau's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With files from The Canadian Press.