After posting a dismal vacancy rate of 0.2% as recently as 2016, rental supply is beginning to boom in Kelowna.
According to the latest figures released by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the city’s vacancy rate as climbed to an even 3% as of October 2019.
While only rental apartment units are considered in the report, there are 6,650 such units available for rent in Kelowna, a large increase from the 1,300 available units reported a year ago.
It’s a continuing trend that has seen vacancy rates jump to 1.9% in 2017 and 2.7% in 2018.
However, that 3% vacancy rate doesn’t translate across all of Kelowna’s neighbourhoods.
The rate for Rutland sits at 1%, up from 0.6% in 2018.
While the number of available units for renters has jumped greatly, the cost of those homes has also continued to rise.
The average price of one-bedroom units has jumped from $937 in October of 2017 to $1,095 in October of 2019.
For two-bedrooms, costs have risen from $1,066 in 2016 to $1,385 in 2019, while three-bedroom units reported at $1,252 in 2016 now sit at $1,564.
Three-bedroom apartment units are also highlighted as being the hardest to find in Kelowna, with only 164 available in the city.
For 2019, Kelowna boasts the highest vacancy rate across the four major rental markets in the province.
Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission are at 1.1%, while Victoria's rate is 1% and provincially, BC sits at 1.5%.
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