Yellowknife Vacancy Rate Cut in Half

This morning the CMHC released its Spring 2015 Rental Market Statistics Report. Amazingly, Yellowknife’s rental apartment and townhouse vacancy rate was slashed from 5.3% a year ago to 2.4% this spring. And the reduction would have been even greater had an additional 52 units not been added to the inventory.

To get a sense of how surprising these numbers are one doesn’t has to look too far. Just a week ago CMHC released its Northern Housing Outlook Report, in which it predicted a decrease in the vacancy rate in 2015 to 3.5%.

All of this is good news for investment property owners and bad news for renters. But does it mean we’ll be making a return to our traditionally stingy vacancy rates? There are currently more than 200 apartment condos under construction and/or pre-sales in our city, which could theoretically draw tenants out of 10% of the total rental universe. We also have a couple of large rental apartment buildings sitting vacant while being renovated. Granted, we did just lose one downtown apartment building to a fire over the weekend, but on the balance I would expect rental rates to relax between now and this time next year.

Vacancy Rates (%) in Privately Initiated Rental Row and Apartment Structures of Three Units and Over
Year	Vacancy Rate (%)	Total Units
1998	0.1
1999	0.1
2000	0
2001	0.1
2002	0.3
2003	1.8
2004	3.1
2005	3.4
2006	3.4
2007 – Spring	2.8	1,921
2007 – Fall	1.2	1,946
2008 – Spring	0.6	2,004
2008 – Fall	0.9	2,005
2009 – Spring	2.9	2,003
2009 – Fall	5.3	2,138
2010 – Spring	1.3	2,125
2010 – Fall	0.9	2,120
2011 – Spring	0.7	2,119
2011 – Fall	1.3	2,103
2012 – Spring	2.4	2,110
2012 – Fall	3.2	2,121
2013 – Spring	3.6	not available
2013 – Fall	3.6	2,080
2014 – Spring	5.3	1,928
2014 – Fall	4.8	1,943
2015 – Spring	2.4	1,980