Finding an apartment to rent in St. Albert is a little trickier this month as many local complexes posted no vacancy signs.
A quick phone survey this week to managers of local complexes showed only five vacant apartments within the city.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s spring 2012 Rental Market Survey showed the vacancy rate went down in Edmonton as well. The survey did not break out St. Albert’s statistics from the Metropolitan Edmonton area but throughout the region vacancy rates declined from last year’s 4.7 per cent to an overall vacancy rate this spring of 2.7 per cent. The CMHC fall report listed St. Albert’s vacancy rate at 0.5 per cent in October and it likely still hovers around that number.
Sturgeon Point Villas, which is St. Albert’s largest rental complex with 280 units, has no vacancies this month. Manager Will Dereski has been referring anyone who asks to a sister rental property in Edmonton.
“We’re full, which is good news for us, but it’s hard for us when people want to live in St. Albert. It’s hard for people to find a place to live right now,” Dereski said.
CMHC’s report suggests robust job growth and rising migration to the province has had an impact on available apartments throughout the province.
St. Albert’s rental market still reflects the fluctuations of the real estate market in 2007 when the boom times ended, said property manager Julie Lavallee, of Bermont Realty.
“A lot of people bought condos before the market dropped in 2007 and then waited for the market to spike again. They rented them out, but now, some of them have stopped waiting and have finally decided to sell, so those units aren’t available for rent,” she said.
Lavallee said rents are starting to creep up two or three per cent above last year’s levels as the supply of apartments dwindles.
“Rents haven’t increased a lot yet, so people are happy to stay in their apartments and those units don’t come available. But rent increases are starting to happen,” she said.
Local property manager Herma Drummond of Gateway Gardens said the economic impact of the last few years has been felt close to home by many people.
“A few years ago when things weren’t going so well, the kids were moving back home with their parents. Now they are working again and moving back out again. There’s more prosperity,” she said.
According to CMHC’s fall report the average two-bedroom St. Albert apartment rent was $1,034. That compares to Edmonton where the average for a two-bedroom unit in April 2012 was $1,036.
