WINNIPEG — There’s a lot to consider when choosing a new apartment to rent and a Winnipeg based website is hoping to make that process easier. The founder of Rent it or Not said there was a lack of information when looking at rental properties in the city.
“I had read hotel reviews when I was travelling so I figured why wouldn’t this exist for a place where you live for a full year,” Donavan Purdy said.
Purdy launched the website a few years ago and it’s recently expanded to the states. There are now over 50,000 Winnipeg properties listed with reviews. The website has been especially useful for people relocating to Winnipeg from another city.
“We’ve noticed that we have had visitors from other countries as well looking at the website, looking to move to Canada, reading the reviews first,” Purdy said.
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A few tenants have already made decisions based on the reviews they’ve read.
“I saw one apartment in the village that seemed like a super sweet deal and I was about to phone and book a time to check it out,” Jaremy Edigar said.
“I checked Rent it or Not and it was a building where hydro was through the roof expensive.”
As a renter, Edigar appreciates reading both the good and bad aspects of living in a particular building.
Some of the problems listed on Winnipeg buildings include management response time, broken elevators and bed bugs.
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One financial advisor said he’s seeing an increase in the number of people choosing to rent – instead of buying.
“Renting is more of a commitment phobia right now, where people don’t know exactly where they want to be,” Glen Melnyk said. “They don’t want a just starter home they want everything now.”
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Melnyk has seen this trend specifically with millennials.
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