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November 28, 2017 - 10:25 AM
VERNON - Rents are up again and available units down in Vernon, according to the latest housing report.
The vacancy rate for Vernon apartment rentals dwindled to 1.5 per cent, down from 1.9 in October of last year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s most recent rental market report. Units are considered vacant if they are physically unoccupied and available for immediate rental.
A vacancy rate of four per cent is generally considered healthy.
Meanwhile, the average rent climbed overall by 7.5 per cent in all types of rentals. Bachelor suites are on average $619 a month, up from $587 last year; one-bedrooms are $765 up from $705; two-bedrooms are $913 up from $860 and three-bedrooms are $998 up from $935, according to the report.
The report suggests it is also much harder to find a townhouse rental, with the vacancy rate for that type of housing plummeting to 1.1 per cent, down from 3.6 per cent in October 2016. Average rent is also up 7.3 per cent for townhouses, although the corporation did not publish detailed data in this section because it was considered unreliable.
Vernon’s overall vacancy rate is just slightly above the provincial average of 1.3 per cent, while its rent is under the $1,164 average found around B.C.
A glimmer of hope is that rental supply is expanding in Southern B.C., according to the report. Kelowna in particular displayed one of the highest increases in the number of rentals added to the market, with 289 units. Vernon is actually down by 11 units (with a total of 1,547 this October compared to 1,558 last year) but that should change in 2018 with the creation of some 53 modular housing units for those at risk of homelessness.
The corporation says demand for rental housing is growing due to employment growth and high levels of migration in 2016 and 2017. Another factor is rising house prices and low inventories of housing stock in major centres, which combined with higher interest rates, is leaving households renting longer while they save for a down payment, the corporation says.
You can read the report in full here.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2017