By Liam Verster

One, two-bedrooms see largest increase

Vacancy rates in Grande Prairie rose to 9.6 per cent in 2020

Feb 1, 2021 | 5:02 AM

A new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows the average private apartment vacancy rate in Grande Prairie climbed to 9.6 per cent in 2020, up from the 5.1 per cent recorded in 2019.

The 4.5 per cent increase came mostly from increases in one-bedroom units, where the vacancy rate climbed from 4 per cent in 2019 to 7.6 in 2020, and the two-bedroom rate, which more than doubled from 5.3 per cent to 10.7 per cent in the same period of time.

Three-bedroom and larger units also saw an increase from 9 per cent to 11.9 on a year-over-year basis.

Christian Arkilley, Senior Market Analyst and economist for CMHC, says these increases can be attributed mainly to the COVID-19 restrictions, travel restrictions which kept migrants from moving to Grande Prairie for work, and the subsequent economic impact of the pandemic.

“It means that people who could come into Grande Prairie were affected by those travel restrictions, and would not have been able to come,” says Arkilley. “And the second thing is that because of the loss of jobs and all that kind of thing, people, even from within Canada, were not moving into Grande Prairie for the simple fact that the pandemic had restricted job opportunities for people.”

However, those figures were slightly undercut by the vacancy rates of bachelor suites, which saw a decrease from 6.5 to 5.4 per cent.

Arkilley says the bachelor unit vacancy rates declined as people sought to downsize to more affordable units.

“In times like this, when people have lost jobs, and when people are also looking for ways to save money, people will look into ways to move into units that are more affordable, and they prefer the bachelor to other types of units.”

Despite these increases in vacancy rates, the average rental rates did not see much change on a year-over-year basis, as the average rental rate for all units rose from $1,110 in 2019 to $1,112 in 2020.

Bachelor suites saw the average rent increase from $841 to $865, one-bedroom unit rates rose from $984 to $992, two-bedroom unit rates stayed flat at $1,182, while three and more bedroom unit rates increased from $1,190 to $1,203.

Arkilley says the prices remained fairly flat, but that was likely due to turnover rates, which calculates people moving out of a unit and into new lodging. He says the turnover rate in 2020 was actually lower than it was in 2019.

“When you look at the turnover rate (in Grande Prairie), it actually went down from 38.1 per cent in the previous years, to 30.9 per cent, so that tells you that not a lot of people were moving out of their current units.

“What that tells us is, and I can tell you with the pandemic and all the restrictions people were not really comfortable to pack up their things and move into new units. And that can also affect rent, because if I’m not moving, my landlord may not decrease my rent, my rent may remain relatively stable.”

He adds that without people moving to Grande Prairie, and with those already settled not moving to new units, the supply began to overtake demand. More units came into the market in 2020 as unit renovations were done or new builds were completed, but there weren’t the people to fill them.

CMHC did not have enough data points to be able to disclose any information on the vacancy rates in the County of Grande Prairie.

The increase in vacancy rate in Grande Prairie comes as the provincial vacancy rate rose from 5.3 in 2019 to 7.2 per cent in 2020, while the national average rose from 2 per cent in 2019 to a vacancy rate of 3.2 per cent in 2020.