Yellowknife Vacancy Rate Cut in Half
This morning the CMHC released its Spring 2015 Rental Market Statistics Report. Amazingly, Yellowknife’s rental apartment and townhouse vacancy rate was slashed from 5.3% a year ago to 2.4% this spring. And the reduction would have been even greater had an additional 52 units not been added to the inventory.
To get a sense of how surprising these numbers are one doesn’t has to look too far. Just a week ago CMHC released its Northern Housing Outlook Report, in which it predicted a decrease in the vacancy rate in 2015 to 3.5%.
All of this is good news for investment property owners and bad news for renters. But does it mean we’ll be making a return to our traditionally stingy vacancy rates? There are currently more than 200 apartment condos under construction and/or pre-sales in our city, which could theoretically draw tenants out of 10% of the total rental universe. We also have a couple of large rental apartment buildings sitting vacant while being renovated. Granted, we did just lose one downtown apartment building to a fire over the weekend, but on the balance I would expect rental rates to relax between now and this time next year.
Vacancy Rates (%) in Privately Initiated Rental Row and Apartment Structures of Three Units and Over |
Year |
Vacancy Rate (%) |
Total Units |
1998 |
0.1 |
|
1999 |
0.1 |
|
2000 |
0 |
|
2001 |
0.1 |
|
2002 |
0.3 |
|
2003 |
1.8 |
|
2004 |
3.1 |
|
2005 |
3.4 |
|
2006 |
3.4 |
|
2007 – Spring |
2.8 |
1,921 |
2007 – Fall |
1.2 |
1,946 |
2008 – Spring |
0.6 |
2,004 |
2008 – Fall |
0.9 |
2,005 |
2009 – Spring |
2.9 |
2,003 |
2009 – Fall |
5.3 |
2,138 |
2010 – Spring |
1.3 |
2,125 |
2010 – Fall |
0.9 |
2,120 |
2011 – Spring |
0.7 |
2,119 |
2011 – Fall |
1.3 |
2,103 |
2012 – Spring |
2.4 |
2,110 |
2012 – Fall |
3.2 |
2,121 |
2013 – Spring |
3.6 |
not available |
2013 – Fall |
3.6 |
2,080 |
2014 – Spring |
5.3 |
1,928 |
2014 – Fall |
4.8 |
1,943 |
2015 – Spring |
2.4 |
1,980 |