Calgary’s vacancy rates continue to slide

CALGARY- Looking for a home sweet home? Turns out it’s a terrible time to try and rent an apartment in Calgary.

Vacancy rates are the lowest they’ve been in three years, at 1.3 per cent compared with 1.9 per cent last year.

However, it really depends on where you’re looking to live.

Areas close to downtown are the hardest to get into, with vacancy rates at just 0.5 per cent, while communities outside the core have rates from 1.6 to 2.2 per cent.

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CMHC says as Calgary’s economy improves, more people are moving to the city for work.

While it may take longer to find an affordable apartment, it’s not all bad news when you factor in the availability rate.

“That’s where we include the vacancies plus the number of units that are coming onto the market, where perhaps tenants have given their notice and the units haven’t been filled yet,” explains Gerry Baxter. “There’s no new lease agreements, so when you look at that, that’s pretty much double, that’s two and a half per cent city wide.”