CALGARY -- A strong demand for rentals in Calgary overshadowed the number of new units that became available last year, leaving the city's vacancy rate largely unchanged, a new report indicates.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released its Rental Market Survey Wednesday and says Calgary's vacancy rate, recorded late last year has been relatively unchanged since the same time last year.
https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/data-and-research/publications-and-reports/rental-market-reports-major-centres
That's despite the addition of 1,464 newly completed apartment rental units, which is a 75 per cent increase to the total available in Calgary since 2018.
The CMHC adds rental costs in Calgary have increased only slightly from 2018, where a one-bedroom now costs about $1,080 per month to rent while a two-bedroom unit costs an average of $1,305 per month.
The cost to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Calgary is still above the national average, but the municipalities with the highest rental costs for units of that size are still Vancouver ($1,748) and Toronto ($1,582).
It still costs a bit less to rent a one or two-bedroom apartment in Alberta's capital than Calgary. CMHC says the average rent for those units is $1,028 and $1,257 respectively.
However, the cost to rent a three-bedroom unit in Calgary is about $150 less than in Edmonton.
The CMHC says the rental cost of three-bedroom units increased by 1.6 per cent in Edmonton from 2018.
