Calgary Alberta Mortgage and Real Estate News

An increased appetite for owning a home and a drop in the number of people moving to Calgary have pushed up the city’s apartment vacancy rate.

A report released yesterday by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows Calgary’s vacancy rate has risen to 2.1% in October, up from 1.5% a year ago.

The rate of rent increases has slowed as a result.

Rents increased 4.7% during the past year, compared to a 15.4% increase the previous year.

This October, it had cost an average $1,092 to rent a two-bedroom home, or $49 more than October last year.

The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom condominium was $1,293 in October, compared to $1,217 one year ago.

Vacancy rates varied widely across the city.

They were highest in the city’s southeast, where they reached 3.7% in October, up 2% from one year ago, and lowest in the Chinook area, were they reached 1.4%, up from 0.3% a year ago.

“The upward movement in the average vacancy rate,” stated CMHC senior market analyst Lai Sing Louie, “can be attributed to the movement of renter households into home ownership and a moderation of net migration.”

In Alberta’s major centres, the average vacancy rate rose to 2.5% in October, up from 1.6% one year ago, for the same reasons that pushed up rates in Calgary, says the CMHC.

Of the province’s major centres, the Wood Buffalo area, which centres around bustling Fort McMurray, posted a 0.5% vacancy rate, the province’s lowest.

Brooks, located about halfway between Calgary and Medicine Hat on the Trans-Canada Highway, had the province’s highest vacancy rate at 9.1%.

Edmonton had an October vacancy rate of 2.4%, up from 1.5% one year ago.