If you are one of those people who are in the North-West BC region searching for a rental and finding it tough, you’re not the only one.
It seems as though the market is at a very unusual state in the sense that there is an overabundance of people looking to rent but a lack of properties available.
Peter Lund out of Smithers Remax says if you have the rental market is very fragile right now and if you don’t hop on the first thing you find appealing, it will be gone before you know it.
“It’s a tough situation because of all the new people moving to the area at the same time. Obviously, you see rental properties available but rates for those types of places are going up and in turn is making it difficult for single people or lower income families to find a residence.”
Although Lund says the rental market is lacking, he reassures the full-time housing market is quite strong.
“The only difficulty with the market in terms of house purchasing is that we’re obviously seeing this late winter push into spring however we really expect things to pick up in the next 2-4 weeks.”
Lund says one issue with the rental market is the fact that building costs for rental properties are fairly high so unless you can find a government-subsidized building, you may be out of luck.