A housing needs assessment that was presented to Moncton city council on Monday shows that over the last five years, home prices have grown by roughly 65 per cent, while the average rent increased by almost 40 per cent.
“Housing affordability (in Moncton) is a challenge,” said Dalton Wudrich, a senior consultant at Toronto-based SHS Consulting who co-authored the report. “What is driving that is a lot of people are moving to Moncton.
“So even though the development industry is building a lot of houses and rental units, there isn’t quite enough to keep up.”
The last Housing Needs Assessment was completed in 2017.
Wudrich said since then, there has been a drastic shift in development favouring apartment buildings rather than single-family homes.
While rent has risen faster than inflation and household income in the same timespan, Wudrich said that’s expected for a city growing the way Moncton is.
“Looking at other communities, the rents have risen even higher than Moncton has seen,” he said.
“There needs to be an ongoing focus on ensuring that purpose-built rental is continuing to provide supply and reduce pressure on housing prices and improving rental vacancy rates,” he said.
The report also highlighted a need for the construction of larger units, to accommodate immigrant families often coming with larger households, and “supportive housing” for those living with disabilities.
Willy Scholten, the president of the New Brunswick Apartment Owners Association, said in an interview on Tuesday that rental stock was “at an all-time low.”
Scholten is the CEO of Colpitts Developments, a company that has been building and managing residential and commercial properties in the Fredericton area for over three decades.
Colpitts has several developments under construction.
He said building luxury units that will yield a higher rent makes the most economic sense for developers.
“Anybody building units right now is building with extreme risk,” he said.
“They’re muddling through interest rates that have gone up…. Building costs continue to rise.”
He acknowledged a growing frustration with landlords in the province regarding rising rental costs.
“With our vacancy rate of 1.9 per cent, people should be praising anybody staring that risk in the face and still building,” he said.
He’s calling for more accessible subsidies to entice developers to build more affordable units.
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