Kelowna boasts highest vacancy rate of any Canadian metropolitan area
Global News
According to CMHC's annual rental market report, Kelowna's vacancy rate is now sitting at 6.4 per cent, up significantly from 3.8 per cent last year.
Rental signs are popping up everywhere in Kelowna, B.C., where the vacancy rate has soared to the highest of any Canadian metropolitan area.
“Supply increased, demand decreased and as a result, we are seeing a softer rental market,” said Shiva Moshtari Doust, B.C. lead economist with the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC).
According to CMHC’s annual rental market report, Kelowna’s vacancy rate is now sitting at 6.4 per cent, up significantly from 3.8 per cent last year.
Moshtari Doust said a contributing factor is the outflow of residents due to affordability and changes to Canada’s immigration policies.
“Mostly non-permanent residents are the renter population and that outflow really softened the demand in the market,” she said.
“Non-permanent residents being international students, being temporary foreign workers, as well as an outflow of interprovincial migration to mostly the neighbour province of Alberta, due to mostly cost of living and affordability reasons.”
Youth unemployment and increased supply are also major factors, according to CMHC, and in Kelowna the impact is perhaps even greater.
According to Statistics Canada, Kelowna’s unemployment rate rose to just over 11 per cent in November.
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