The rising cost of living is making the demand for student housing skyrocket in the Okanagan.
Although the addition of new beds is on the way, schools are looking for solutions sooner rather than later.
In recent years, the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) has seen its enrolment numbers steadily rise. Now, the post-secondary institution has close to 12,000 students, but they only have 2,100 beds available on campus.
“Student housing at UBC Okanagan has been a challenge for the last couple of years,” said Stefanie Allen, student engagement and learning director at UBCO.
“We suspect there’s a number of reasons for this. Currently, Kelowna has the lowest vacancy rate in any metropolitan city in Canada, it’s sitting at 0.6 per cent.”
In order to create more student housing, UBCO’s new downtown campus, which was approved in July, will add close to 500 beds. However, the completion date is still years away.
To keep up with the demand the university provides resources to those who have to look off campus.
“We hear it all the time that affordability is a huge thing so we often try to coach students on where to look for housing that may be student appropriate. We also try and keep those funding bursaries available for students as they look for their housing,” Allen said.
Allen says students who move from out of province or country can sometimes fall victim to scammers and encourage them to have a conversation with school advisers first.
The post-secondary is also working with a website to provide rentals at an affordable cost.
“UBC’s partnered with a place called Place4Students which is an online listing program where landlords can post their available properties or rooms in their home.”
Okanagan College is also trying to alleviate the high demand. A new residence building is currently under construction which will add over 200 beds to their Kelowna campus, as the current accommodations are highly sought after students had to look elsewhere.
“I got my letter of acceptance a little bit too close to our start date so, the dorm was full. It was a bit hard to find a place that is decent and cheap, to be honest,” said student Adinda.
“They should make the housing here so it will be easy for the students that are living far away from the college,” said student Navpreet Singh.
Construction on the Okanagan College residences is expected to be completed in the winter of 2023.