Residential Rental Outlook
THUNDER BAY – REAL ESTATE – The rental market for residential apartments in Thunder Bay remains very tight. There is a vacancy rate of 2.4% in the city, slightly lower than the average rate across Ontario. The average apartment rental in the city sits at $864 for a two bedroom apartment in the city.
The rental apartment vacancy rate in Ontario urban centres was 2.8 per cent in April, 2014, up slightly from 2.6 per cent in April 2013 according to the Spring Rental Market Survey released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Canada Wide Update from CMHC
“Less international migration and more condominium rental completions exerted upward pressure on vacancy rates across the province. Meanwhile, stronger employment among younger households who typically rent and fewer rental households moving to homeownership supported rental demand in Ontario this spring. A slight uptick in rental vacancies was the net effect these factors had on the rental market in the spring of 2014,” said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC’s Ontario Regional Economist.
By market, vacancy rates remained stable in eight of out of 15 CMAs across the province. Barrie (2.1%), Ottawa (3.2%) and Windsor (5.0%) were the only centers that registered lower vacancy rates while Toronto and London contributed most to the rise in the vacancy rate. The lowest vacancy rate was registered in Oshawa (1.6%), Guelph (1.7%) and Toronto (1.9%) while the highest vacancy rates were registered in Windsor (5.0%), Sudbury (5.0%) and Brantford (4.4%).
On the basis of a sample of structures common to both the 2013 and 2014 surveys(3), the average 2-bedroom rent increased by 2.7 per cent in Ontario versus 3 per cent this time last year. Slightly higher vacancy rates moderated the increase in same sample rents during the spring of 2014. However, in tighter rental markets such as Guelph, Toronto and Oshawa fixed sample rents grew above the average rate registered across the province
