Rental vacancy rate in the Windsor area remains near a record low
The overall vacancy rate in the Windsor area remains at a near record low while average rental rates increased at a quicker pace in 2023.
The findings were released Wednesday in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Rental Market Survey.
The vacancy rate in the Windsor CMA hit two per cent in 2023, compared to a record low of 1.8 percent in 2022.
The average two-bedroom rent moved to $1,253 in 2023, a 6.5 per cent increase over 2022.
CMHC Lead Economist for Southern Ontario Anthony Passarelli told AM800's The Shift that strong population growth is one reason for the low vacancy rate.
"You saw very migration into the region from other countries. So that would be a combination of permanent residents moving to the area and they do tend to rent when they first move there, plus a very high number of non-permanent residents moving to Windsor. A lot of those would be the international students," he says.
Passarelli says according to discussions with property mangers, they definitely drove home the point that there were more students renting this year, more international students.
"You saw things back or above those pre-COVID levels, there was a lot of those students competing to rent units because there wasn't much in terms of student housing available," he says.
According to the report, rapidly increasing homeownership costs since early 2022 have led to fewer households transitioning to homeownership. This has driven rent increases, as fewer units are available for prospective renters.
Affordability also remains a challenge, as average rents increased at a quicker pace in 2023. This is particularly the case for renters seeking a new unit, since average rents for vacant units were 8.9 per cent higher than average rents for occupied units.
The report also indicates the higher rental rates for vacant units compared with occupied units highlights the barriers faced by both new renters entering the market and existing renters looking to relocate.
The CMHC says the market needs additional rental supply to satisfy the excess demand and slow the rate of rent increases.
The federal housing agency says the vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments across Canada sat at 1.5 per cent, down from 1.9 per cent a year earlier, which had been the lowest national vacancy rate in over two decades.
The national average rent for a two-bedroom purpose-built apartment, which the CMHC uses as its representative sample, grew eight per cent to $1,359 in 2023, which it notes was well above historical averages.