Students who haven’t found housing for the new school year shouldn’t throw their first month deposit into the bottom of a beer pitcher just yet. For once, there is housing in Toronto. In fact, there’s a surplus of it.
Walk down the street in any neighbourhood in Toronto and you’re likely to see “For Rent” signs. This is something you just didn’t see a couple years ago, according to Off-Campus Housing Manager Diana Scattolon.
Scattolon says that most people “assume there is a housing crunch because of the double cohort.” However, since the double cohort is all made up of first year students, “the crunch was on residences, not on the off-campus housing side,” says Scattolon. Off-campus housing is actually “very healthy” right now, says Scattolon. She believes that students have a choice when it comes to housing these days, because “the landlords are looking for a tenant.”
There is a high vacancy rate in Toronto right now and rents are going down, says Scattolon. Two years ago the vacancy rate was at 0.5%, whereas right now it is at about 3%. Though Scattolon says there is “always going to be high rent in Toronto” and it is “always pricey close to campus,” it is a lot easier to find a decent place than it was two years ago.
Not everyone is having such an easy time finding housing, however. Melinda Zakye, a student entering first year, finds that there’s “not that much available” and that “all the cheaper apartments are taken.”
Aram Rondel, another student entering first year, finds that though there’s “a lot available, most of the apartments you see are not in very good shape.” There is “always something that interferes with what you want exactly out of the place,” he laments.
Some students luck out, though. Nathalie Danjoux, a masters student, says that she has “seen some nice places” and hasn’t been too disappointed. There “seems to be a lot of availability,” she says, though you “have to compromise a little” and shop around to find the right price, location, and space. She was shocked to find availability within her price range, however.
Scattolon says landlords are having to reduce rent in order to find tenants. She adds that it is now “less likely that a landlord can charge more than what the apartment is offering.” Landlords are also having to look at offering extras, she says, such as including utilities, replacing the carpets, painting, and including free parking.
Mario Plastina, a landlord in Toronto, is surprised by the lack of response and says he hasn’t had many calls. “Two years ago I must have had 50 or 60 calls,” he says, but this year “I’ve probably had five.” He has had to reduce rent a little, he says, but generally it depends on the person. “If they look more sincere, I may lower it for them,” he says.
Alex de Auer, another Toronto landlord, says that things are picking up now, but about three months ago he wasn’t getting any response at all to rental ads. There was “a huge vacancy at the start of the summer, but August, September, and October are becoming the busy months again,” he says. He isn’t having difficulty finding tenants, but says that it takes longer to find them.
De Auer believes that “tenants will always see value in places that are kept up well,” and so he tries to keep up his apartments. The vacancy rate is having a bigger effect on the type of landlords who “slap paint on the walls and don’t create a nice living environment,”he believes. Whereas before people may have been forced to take these types of apartments anyway, they now have more choice, he says.
Scattolon says that the change is tied to the housing market. “Mortgage rates are low, and rents are high,” she explains. When rent control was stopped by the government, “people were able to raise rent as much as they wanted.” To compensate, people have been buying homes and leaving vacancies, hoping to get an income for renting out part of their home. This has created a “glut of availability,” says Scattolon.
De Auer attributes the change directly to the condos that are “being built left, right, and centre all over the city.” This is actually really bad, says de Auer, because it is “driving the market down – the rental market has really taken a beating.”
Scattolon encourages students to negotiate and “ask for what they want,” especially regarding the lease. Many students don’t want to get locked in to a one year lease and she says that they should “assure the landlord they’ll stay for the school year, but want month to month.”
“Landlords should be more lenient,” Scattolon believes.
