Vacancy rates not as dire as reports show
Rental markets are undoubtedly tight in the Okanagan, but newly published vacancy rates don’t tell the whole story, say local officials.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the stock of private rental apartments in Penticton increased by just a single unit to 2,308 between October 2019 and October 2020. Over the same period, the vacancy rate shrunk from 1.9% to 0.8%.
“The CMHC report is a good benchmark document, but certainly includes some deficiencies, for example it only includes apartment buildings with over three units, but doesn’t include suites, townhomes, duplex housing or singlefamily housing rental units, which are an important part of the rental housing stock in Penticton,” Blake Laven, the city’s director of development services, said in an email.
And while the municipality doesn’t track rental stock specifically, Laven noted the city permitted an average of 410 new homes annually since 2017.
All that said, “The rental situation in Penticton is currently extremely tight, which the CMHC report backs up, and this has been the case for the past six years,” continued Laven.
Developers have taken notice, he added, which is evidenced by the new 75-unit rental building Mission Group is putting up on Westminster Avenue and the 180-unit rental building Highstreet Ventures is finishing on South Main Street.
All told, there are approximately 600 new rental units in the pipeline over the next four years, according to Laven.
Up the highway in Kelowna, the stock of private rental apartments grew by only 115 units to 6,364 between October 2019 and October 2020 – after averaging 746 in each of the previous two years – while the vacancy rate dipped slightly from 2.3% to 2.2%, according to CMHC.
James Moore, the city’s long-range planning manager, agreed with Laven the vacancy rate is a useful indicator, but doesn’t paint a complete picture.
Kelowna is in the midst of “historically significant”
investment in purpose-built rental housing, with 625 new units permitted in 2020 alone, continued Moore, and in each of the past five years, the city has permitted an average of 2,168 housing units of all types.
Vernon has permitted an average of 434 new housing units of all types over each of the past five years.
As for apartment rentals, the North Okanagan city added 153 units between October 2019 and October 2020 to lift its stock to 1,758, but saw its vacancy rate retreat from 1.9% to 1%, according to CMHC.