Thursday, December 13, 2007

Looking for a place to rent, then Rupert or Kitimat is where you want to be, but you'll still need a fair amount of cash!


Canada Mortgage and Housing released their statistics on rental properties today and while the rest of the province’s housing market is getting tight, in the Northwest, Kitimat and Prince Rupert still have a rather high vacancy rate.

The number of vacant units is declining slightly from a year ago, but is still rather high indicative of the struggling economies of the two northwest cities.
Vacancy rates in Prince Rupert in October of 2007 were listed as at 15%, down five percent from 2006’s 20% vacancy rate.

Kitimat in the meantime has bounced back by 13 percent, with a vacancy rate in 2007 of 21.0% down significantly from last years 34%.

Rupert and Kitimat were the only two communities in the province listed in double digits as far as vacant apartments go.

Terrace has a vacancy rate of 7.3 per cent, no data was provided for last year’s vacancy rate in Terrace.

Rents in the Northwest didn’t change very much from year to year.

Kitimat’s average rental cost decreased by one dollar with an average rent in the city listed as 454 dollars. Prince Rupert rents increased an average of 24 dollars with the average rent here listed as 561 dollars. Terrace rents jumped 41 dollars with rents listed as averaging 533 dollars.

Despite the high vacancy rate, Prince Rupert still remains among the costliest of places in the Northwest in which to rent an apartment in.

Kitimat 2006 Average Rent $455
Kitimat 2007 Average Rent $454

Terrace 2006 Average Rent $493
Terrace 200 Average Rent $533

Prince Rupert 2006 Average Rent $537
Prince Rupert 2007 Average Rent $561

It’s not known if the recent closure of many of Prince Rupert’s apartment blocks such as the Diby Towers, Sherbrooke Gardens and other recently emptied buildings were included in the count, if they are taken out of inventory for the next period that would tend to increase the strain on rental apartment space in the city as well as drive the rental prices upwards .

Full details on the CMHC report can be found from the agencies website (see here)

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