The good news is I’ve scored a hat trick.
The bad news is it’s for living in a third consecutive city as a renter with a vacancy rate below one per cent.
Charlottetown is the latest to join the list, also comprised of Regina and Yellowknife.
A less confident person would think that my moving to a city would have something to do with people leaving. But I think it’s just a coincidence.
When I moved to Regina in 2011, the vacancy rate was 0.6 per cent. For some strange reason, it wasn’t as bad as that number showed. Apartments were available. They just got gobbled up really fast. The bigger issue was (and likely still is) affordable housing. This was probably the first time I heard of the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation – the organization that tracks all things housing.
But Regina today is a different place with a vacancy rate that has shot up to 5.5 per cent, largely due to residential and rental development. Generally speaking, three per cent is considered healthy.
Yellowknife is, and always will be I suspect, a unique and challenging place for renting. I lived there in 2010 when the vacancy rate was 0.9 per cent – a drop from six per cent the previous year. There were very few listings.
I was working at the local newspaper and crashing on a couch. As the weeks went on, things were bleak and my stress level was through the roof.
I got lucky and ended up renting a room in a duplex with a single mother, her young son and another tenant. The price tag? $800 a month for a room. Not bad considering the going monthly rate for a one-bedroom apartment, if you can find one, was around $1,200. I lived there for about a year. It was a fun situation. Interestingly, the young son has grown up and now goes to UPEI. Small world.
Charlottetown sits at 0.5 per cent. Yikes. And, the vacancy rate is on the wrong side of a trend – down from 5.9 per cent in 2014 to 4.2 per cent in 2015 and then to 1.7 per cent in 2016.
The city has changed considerably since I first came here as a renter in June 2016. There were options available. I was able to choose a place with no lease. Fast forward one year. Once again, looking for a place but this time, not much out there.
I usually just check listings online. That’s always worked fine. But this time, I did something else I hadn’t done before – call the rental companies. The consensus response was nothing until the end of September. Really? It’s the middle of July. I started to panic.
But once again, I got lucky. Word of mouth led me to a place downtown before it was advertised.
I snapped it up quickly. And that’s the key.
Today, you’ve got to be fearless and have cat-like reflexes when looking for an apartment. There is no time for hesitation. You pounce or risk losing it.
Renting is also getting more expensive. The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Charlottetown is $910 this year, up from $836 in 2014. In 2019, the forecast is $975.
So, good news for landlords. Increased population, high demand and lagging supply are driving up prices. Plus, landlords can be more picky about who they rent to. References and credit checks can be part of the process in some cases.
The forecasted vacancy rate for Charlottetown doesn’t look promising either – 0.4 per cent in 2018 and 0.8 per cent in 2019.
On the bright side, housing starts could climb to 705 next year and a proposed 23-unit apartment building on Richmond Street in Charlottetown is inching closer to final municipal approval.
So, the vacancy rate could change for the better, as it did in Regina with new housing and apartment buildings. Let’s hope it does.
Twitter.com/terry
