Breaking News - Vacancy Rates in Windsor Drop Below 4%!

CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) released its latest rental market survey last week and Windsor’s vacancy rate has declined again.

Last year’s vacancy rate of 4.3% is now down to 3.9%.

Source: Urbanite News

This marks the 7th straight year that vacancy rates in the area are down in the area. Average rents also edged up by 2.8% year over year. The final report will be released in December.

How can we interpret this news? Here are some of the takeaways:

1. This is good news for the multifamily sector as they have lower vacancy and therefore higher net incomes. This is also good for property values as this translates into higher valuations based on the income approach.
2. The population must be growing again as more and more units are being occupied.
3. This moves the Windsor market further inline with the Ontario average of 3.1%.
4. The vacancy rate has continued its decline since 2008, toping out north of 14%. This is a remarkable turnaround.
5. This puts Windsor vacancy rate below those of large markets such as Calgary (5.3%) and Edmonton (4.2%).
6. This could put further demand pressure on the housing market as more and more renters decide to leave a tight rental market and buy a home.
7. Landlords could begin looking to build rental units as the economics improve with these lower vacancy rates. We have already seen one starting in the suburb of Lasalle this year.
8. Tenants will have a harder time finding units to rent and will be looking at paying higher rents than they have been.

Overall this is very positive news for Windsor, its economy and investors in the community.

Readers, what do you make of this news?

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Russel Lalovich
russel@lalovichrealestate.com
Office: (519) 966-0444
Cell: (519) 995-5620