Fort McMurray has lots of rental units, but you’ll pay a steep price

When it comes to Alberta’s housing rental market, business is booming almost everywhere but the one place you would expect: Fort McMurray.

A spring survey released Tuesday by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. shows the vacancy rate for rental units in Wood Buffalo soared to a province high 10.8 per cent in April, up from 6.2 per cent a year earlier. The region was one of only two of 17 surveyed in Alberta where the vacancy rate is increasing, with Lethbridge being the other.

The hottest major market in the province for housing rentals is Grande Prairie, where the vacancy rate fell to 1.1 per cent. Calgary and Edmonton continue to be challenging places to find rental accommodation, with fewer apartments available than a year ago and vacancy rates of 2.5 and 2.7 per cent respectively.

Felicia Mutheardy, a market analyst for CMHC, said more rental units are available in and around Fort McMurray because oilsands companies are transferring more employees to work camps. Mutheardy said there are slightly more 30,000 workers living in the camps, an increase of about 20 per cent from last year.

With more apartments available, rental costs in Wood Buffalo are down but still exorbitant – an average of $1,650 for a one-bedroom apartment, $2,031 for two bedrooms and $2,357 for three. In comparison, a two-bedroom suite rents for $1,210 a month in Vancouver and $1,164 in Toronto.

Kimberly Snow, a supervisor in community development in Wood Buffalo, said virtually all bachelor apartments in Fort McMurray are occupied, mainly by men working in the oilpatch.

“That is our stress point right now,” Snow said. “The camps do relieve some of the stress in other areas.”

Carol Christian, a spokeswoman for the Oil Sands Developers Group, confirmed CMHC’s figure of slightly more than 30,000 workers living in camps, but said the number fluctuates. She said there are about 53,500 rooms available for workers, with most north of Fort McMurray.

Christian said that having employees live in camps reduces costs, but that companies also do it for other reasons, including commuting and driving distance and issues such as worker fatigue, getting employees to work on time, reducing the number of vehicles on the roads and the pressure on regional service providers.

Mutheardy said the fall forecast calls for a strong need for immediate housing in the Fort McMurray area and for the rental market to tighten significantly. Grande Prairie’s near-100-per-cent occupancy rate will likely continue through the rest of the year, the analyst predicted.

“The market here is quite tight at the moment,” said Brian Glavine, an economic development officer in Grande Prairie. “It has actually improved dramatically here in the last 18 months to two years.”

A hotbed of exploration for natural gas, Grande Prairie could become less and less attractive if the price of oil declines, Glavine said.

Figures compiled by CMHC show that there are no three-bedroom apartments available in Grande Prairie. The occupancy rate of bachelor suites and one-bedroom units is above 99 per cent. The average rental costs for all housing has risen in the last year, to an average of just under $900 per month.