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Hundreds of students in need of homes in Kelowna

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Hundreds of students are in need of housing for this upcoming school year amid a rental shortage in Kelowna.

Cailan Libby, CEO with Happipad, a service that partners those in need of housing with landlords who rent out rooms, said every day they’re seeing 30 new renters on site but only two to three new landlords. More than 400 students are currently in need of housing.

“For every homeowner that’s offering space, there’s 10 students in need of space,” he said.

READ MORE: Kelowna has lowest vacancy rate of any major Canadian city and that's not a good thing

This year, Happipad has partnered with Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan to provide off-campus housing, but they’re also seeing a higher level of demand.

“We noticed an abnormally high demand for students. I think in the last few years a lot of students were working remote and a lot of them are coming into Kelowna this year for in-person classes… and Kelowna has been growing a lot, the campus has grown tremendously, 2,000 students have been added to their population base so overall we’re seeing a tremendous amount of pressure on the housing market in the Okanagan and students are really feeling the brunt of it,” Libby said.

Happipad has services across Canada and has partnered with colleges in Ontario, the Kootenays the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

“We actually see smaller communities facing more of an issue,” Libby said, adding in the Lower Mainland there’s been more social housing and affordable housing projects going on while the Okanagan still sees high rental prices.

Kelowna has the lowest vacancy rate of any major Canadian city, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Zumper reports the average rent for a two-bedroom unit is $2,450.

Libby said across Canada a third of bedrooms are sitting empty every night, so the point of Happipad is to connect those with extra rooms to those that need them.

“It’s not the end all, be all solution, but in Kelowna we’re above average, about 40% of bedroom spaces sit empty so for example, in Kelowna we could house the entire student population two-times over in the city,” Libby said.


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