It may be easier to find a vacant apartment in Fort McMurray these days than it once was, thanks to an increase in vacancy in the oilsands capital, but that doesn’t mean apartments there are exactly affordable.
According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), Fort Mac, in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, remains far and away the most expensive place in the province for rental-apartment dwellers. Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo had a vacancy rate of 13.2 per cent in April, almost four times the average rate for Alberta communities with a population of over 10,000.
According to the federal agency’s latest rent survey numbers, a two-bedroom Fort Mac pad rang in at a cool $2,031 per month in April, down about 5.6 per cent from a year ago.
Still, even with higher rents in places such as Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Cold Lake, the spread between Fort Mac and the rest of the field remained at over $850 for a standard two-bedroom apartment.
The oilsands community of Cold Lake now has the second-highest two-bedroom rent in the province – $1,175. It was up 3.6 per cent over last year.
The percentage increase was higher in Grande Prairie (11.5 per cent), with a two-bedroom apartment in that community bumping to $966 from $866.
Rents were up in both Calgary and Edmonton, though the increase was considerably higher in Calgary – about 7 per cent – to take that city’s price to $1,113 per month. Edmonton rang in at $1,036 per month.
The southern Alberta cities of Lethbridge and Medicine Hat were less expensive for apartment dwellers, posting average two-bedroom rents of $862 and $694, respectively. Neither city’s rents moved much from a year ago.
Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo had a vacancy rate of 13.2 per cent in April, which was almost four times the average rate for Alberta communities over 10,000 population.
Okotoks posted a vacancy rate of zero in the CMHC survey for April.
This article from the August 2012 Western Investor.
