1451 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

It’s the same old song in Victoria.

In 2030 people will be saying how easy it was to find an apartment back in 2018 and how affordable the rent was.

[Nparker]

 

Michael Young said in an interview the city's unique population means a potential housing problem and shortage of health resources will always exist.

What exactly was Victoria's "unique population" in 1979? Did we then and do we now have significantly more poor seniors than any other part of the province?

[Rob Randall]

Condo boom opens rental market

Gidney, Norman.Times - Colonist; Victoria, B.C.

03 Mar 1994

 

A surge in condominium construction has opened up the rental market, giving Victoria tenants the best deal they've had in years, say property managers.

 

"We're saying to owners, if we raise the rent $50 they can move down the street Rent ranges have levelled off or are dropping, for us to re-rent them." [Jeff Sawchuk]'s firm estimated that at the moment, , there are about 2,000 units of all types available for rent. [Gail Cauvin] said that doesn't include another 400 to 600 estimated vacancies coming next month when UVic students leave town. "It's somewhat more of a renter's market than it was five years ago," said Lee King, a housing analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

 

One sign of the higher vacancy rate was the 10 columns of classified ads for apartments and condos for rent in the Times- Colonist Wednesday, and four more columns of townhouses, duplexes and houses.

The larger number of vacancies means rents have flattened out, and even dropped in a few cases.

 

 

Edited by Rob Randall, 28 October 2018 - 09:11 AM.

[Mike K.]

2,000-units among 55,000 purpose built rentals, not including private condo and secondary suite rentals, sounds about right for a 3-4% vacancy rate.

2,000 out of 55,000 is 3.7%. CMHC pegged the rate as high as 4.1% in the mid-90’s. Add to that vacant private rentals and you’d have easily had a 4-6% vacancy back then.

[Rob Randall]

 

Victoria renters having trouble paying - survey

Times - Colonist; Victoria, B.C.

23 Mar 1995

 

Nearly half the tenants in Victoria may be having difficulty finding the rent, federal bean-counters said Tuesday.

 

With about 44 per cent of all renters experiencing "housing affordability problems" in 1991, Victoria ranked highest of 25 centres surveyed, Statistics Canada said.

 

That's no surprise for Victoria renters. "Victoria is the hardest place anywhere in Canada for tenants to find a place to live and they have the least chance of escaping tenancy," said Mike Walker of the Tenants Rights Coalition. "There is nowhere else in the country where things are so bad."

 

Walker said it's "sad" the federal government has removed itself from the affordable-housing business. "For what we have in B.C., crisis isn't the right word any more."

 

[tjv]

Where the trouble starts is if you have $1,000 available for rent.

Then you get a roommate and a 2 bedroom!  Its very common in expensive markets around North America to have roommates, even young professionals making 100+k

 

It will be interesting to see as the economy cools what happens to vacancy rates and rents.  I think vacancy rates will rise to a normal range, but I am not expecting rents to fall.

[Mike K.]

Jesus. These articles should be mandatory reading for local politicians. We’ve never been an easy market to rent in and costs always appeared to be high for a large portion of renters.

[Rob Randall]

But as those 1995 articles point out, depending on your salary, Victoria is either the best or the worst city to find an apartment.

[Rob Randall]

Mike... I already admitted that it was an exaggeration... but I did know of a few buildings that had vacancies of 15-20% in the mid nineties.

 

About the proliferation of ads in the TC in the 90s... and speaking of Devon... yes, I saw the interview on Citified where Reed Kipp talks about the fact they have 8 units available from a portfolio of 5300+. That contrasts greatly with the 30-40+ ads you would see in the TC during the 90s... in both Devon and Brown Bros.

 

 

Landlords wooing prospective tenants

By Norman Gidney - Times - Colonist; Victoria, B.C. 

24 Feb 1996

 

Apartment vacancy rates are their highest in years, and landlords accustomed to zero vacancy and putting people on waiting lists now have to woo prospective tenants.

The Apartment Owners and Managers Association compiles its own vacancy index - a weekly count of ads in the Times Colonist .

There are currently almost two full pages, but the index hit its highest last year since the association began counting more than four years ago, at more than 1,300 ads, says executive director Dave Stacey.

He and others say vacancies tend to be spread unevenly. Some buildings have been full month after month, but there may be a 120- unit building with 30 empty apartments

 

[Mike K.]

One thing's for sure, when you're faced with a healthy market with vacancies in the 3-5% range you're going to get a true sense of who needs to pick up their game and who is doing things just right.

[tjv]

But as those 1995 articles point out, depending on your salary, Victoria is either the best or the worst city to find an apartment.

Absolutely.  It also depends if you wanted a roommate or not.  I know some people back east who were shocked that with a minimum wage job you had to have a roommate here and where even more shocked that people had "strangers living in their houses" (I remember those words specifically).  Even as a starving student and a recent graduate in the 90s I never had any problem finding a place to live or paying the rent, but I never had the attitude I deserve a place of my own if I couldn't afford it.

 

I'm also not trying to be harsh, but its not my problem if you are a single mom, high school drop out, trying to raise kids on minimum wage.  THEY made the decision to have children and drop out of school, not me.  This isn't the job of taxpayers to house people like this.

[VIResident]

A new Renters survey for 2018 https://www.surveymo...entersYYJsurvey

[Bob Fugger]

I'm also not trying to be harsh, but its not my problem if you are a single mom, high school drop out, trying to raise kids on minimum wage.  THEY made the decision to have children and drop out of school, not me.  This isn't the job of taxpayers to house people like this.

 

Together Victoria: Hold my beer... 

[sdwright.vic]

A new Renters survey for 2018 https://www.surveymo...entersYYJsurvey

Very slanted survey...

[aastra]

 

What exactly was Victoria's "unique population" in 1979?

 

Same as today? Heavily slanted towards renting, but generally opposed to new rental construction?

[Mystic-Pizza]

I am pro renting, and pro rental construction..........as long as the construction is done with the reality that renters do not make the monthly income that you as developers are lead to believe they do.  

Edited by Mystic-Pizza, 28 October 2018 - 04:18 PM.

[N E Body]

“The MURBS incentives actually led to a horrendous oversupply of rental stock, raising vacancies,” says Rob. “Builders built too many buildings, and thus vacancy rate was running at well over 10%. For several years filling suites was very tough.”  - Rob Hunter, Devon Properties

http://www.jllmultif...ws-Jan-2016.pdf

[sdwright.vic]

For several years filling suites was tough. But they got filled.

[Mike K.]

I am pro renting, and pro rental construction..........as long as the construction is done with the reality that renters do not make the monthly income that you as developers are lead to believe they do.  

 

That's like saying you're pro BMW, so long as BMW's are built with the reality that drivers do not make the monthly income that they as auto manufacturers are lead to believe they do.

 

The way things work is new housing stock goes to the highest bidders. But they vacate less costlier housing stock, in general. And the folks who move on up into that less costlier stock from even less costlier digs free up their homes for someone else, and on it goes.

 

In other words someone has to buy that brand new BMW so that a 19-year-old kid can eventually buy it used for $5,000. It works the same in housing but housing advocates want the market to supply brand new BMW's at $5,000 to anyone who wants them instead of recognizing that building a ton of brand new BMW's, sold at market rates, eventually makes more BMW's available to all at much lower prices.

[Mattjvd]

If the rental building is full, then yes, renters do make as much as developers think they do.