For the second year in a row, the Peterborough area was the lowest apartment vacancy rate in Ontario, according to a report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) was released on Thursday.
The Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments was 1.1 per cent in October 2022, virtually unchanged from the one per cent reported in 2021, reports CMHC Rental Market ReportWhich checks vacancy rates in the largest cities in Canada.
Ontario’s average was 1.8 per cent. Close behind the Peterborough CMA were Kingston and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, each with 1.2 percent vacancy rates, and Guelph and Brantford, rounding out the top five at 1.5 percent each.
Peterborough real estate market expected to even out in 2023
Home Depot shared customer data with Meta without consent: Canada’s privacy czar
The national vacancy rate was projected to drop from 3.1 percent to 1.9 percent in 2022—the lowest level since 2001.
The Peterborough CMA echoes the data in 2016-2017 with a 1.1 per cent vacancy rate which marked the lowest level in 30 years.
“Five years later, in 2021 and 2022, it returned to its lowest level, suggesting a continuing supply-to-demand challenge,” the Peterborough Data report said. Overall, the vacancy rate has been below its long-term average of 3.1 percent over the past seven years.
The vacancy rate for the Peterborough CMA is below its long term average for the past seven years.
CMHC
“Vacancy rates stabilized as rental demand kept pace with supply growth in 2022,” the report said.
The CMHC study also shows the average two-bedroom apartment in Peterborough in 2022 will be $1,339 – up 5.4 per cent from the data in 2021.
The national average for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,258 – up 5.6 percent from 2021.
The report said Peterborough’s rent rates were “heavily” affected by long-term tenancy as the area had the lowest turnover rate among Ontario CMAs at 9.7 per cent, just behind Oshawa’s 9.5 per cent. Percent.
Rents for vacant apartment units in 2022 were 19 percent higher than those for occupied units.
“Rents for two-bedroom apartments traded up to new tenants increased by an average of 23 percent,” the report said.
The study noted that rental demand has increased due to a number of factors, including improved economic and demographic conditions for renters, such as a recovery in employment, and with students returning to classes at Trent University and Fleming College. “Renewed Student Flow”.
“This year’s enrollment is expected to include more international students,” the report said. “Data from Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows there were 20 per cent more temporary residents living on a study permit in Ontario at the time of CMHC’s survey.”
The growth in Peterborough area rents was led by a 2.8 per cent increase in rental supply across the region – mainly from Downtown Peterborough (Zone 1), which would see a further 170 units in 2022.
Meanwhile, Zone 2 – which includes the remainder of the city, surrounding townships (Douro-Dumar, Cavan-Monaghan and Otonabee-South Monaghan), Curve Lake First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation – temporarily saw an increase from the withdrawal of units. Deleted, not newly created.
Olga Golozub, senior analyst at Economics, noted that despite strong growth in rental supply, the market remained tight in both submarkets.
“Despite a 15-year high growth in rental supply, tight rental market conditions persist in 2022,” she said.
Even with an increase in rental supply of 2.8 per cent, there were 160 more units occupied in October 2022 than the previous year. The number of units occupied in Zone 1 increased by 4.3 per cent – the highest level in a decade.
The report states that as a result of increased competition there are no vacancies in rental buildings completed after 2005 in the Peterborough area – and vacant units are being taken up by tenants wishing to relocate from larger cities, such as working from home. capable of doing.
“Newer structures with modern amenities were more attractive to tenants, even though rents were highest in such structures,” the report said.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.