在加拿大
Calgary post-sec students grapple with little vacancy and costly rents
Candice Ward / For Metro Adrianna Johnson, 18, first-year engineering student from 100 Mile House, B.C., moves into the University of Calgary student housing on Monday, with the help of her brother Mason Johnson, 16, and her family. Post-secondary students who’ve found a reasonably priced abode to call their own should consider themselves lucky — those that haven’t might be out of luck.That’s the word from housing industry watchers, who are reporting just modest gains in rental vacancy compared to a flood-influenced housing crunch in 2013.“I’m sensing that the market is equally as tight this year as it was last and that is a little tighter than it had been for two or three years previous to the flood,” said Steve Fitterer, director of residence services at Mount Royal University. Of his roughly 1,000 beds available to students annually, Fitterer reported last week having just 30 to 40 to spare.The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported in June that rental vacancy in Calgary sat at just 1.4 per cent, tied for the lowest among major centres nationwide with Edmonton.It has become increasingly expensive to rent locally, the report found, as sample apartment rents rose five per cent, bringing the average monthly cost for a two-bedroom apartment to $1,267.Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association, said the turnover rate on rental properties in 2013 also dipped to 31.4 per cent from 36 per cent the year prior. He said some of that could be attributed to lower property availability after historic flooding left numerous homes uninhabitable.As well, he said another potential factor was changes to federal mortgage rules that require prospective homeowners to save up a little more before acquiring a property of their own.“Many people that I talked to last year said their tenants appeared to be staying a little longer,” Baxter said.Students living in on-campus residence at both the University of Calgary and Mount Royal moved in on Sunday.Baxter said those living elsewhere, “should have been looking by the end of July into the first of August.”“If they haven’t gotten anything yet, they’re going to find it a little bit difficult now,” he added.
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