Calgary records a drop in renter interest in new national ranking
Renter interest in Calgary is declining, with a new report showing that the city has slipped five positions in a national ranking.
Moncton, N.B., holds the top spot in Rent Cafe’s Canada renter interest ranking for the third straight quarter as renter demand snapped back from the winter lull.
RentCafe.com is a nationwide apartment search website that enables renters to easily find apartments and houses for rent throughout Canada.
To compile this report, the research team analysed RentCafe.com’s rental listing data across 25 Canadian cities with a relevant listing inventory sample. The regions are defined according to Statistics Canada.
To score each city, it tracked year-over-year changes across four metrics, ranked the cities based on those results and tracked how each city’s position changed from the previous quarter.
Calgary ranked #20 nationally, with a score of 41.45. While interest slipped, Calgary’s availability rose by 13 per cent due to a wave of recently completed apartment buildings putting new units on the market. It marked the largest increase in availability among Canada’s biggest cities.
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Page views for the city fell by 58 per cent, favourited listings dropped by 35 per cent, and saved searches also fell by 58 per cent, suggesting there is less urgency in the market with more available apartments.
“Following a period of strong momentum, renter interest in Calgary appears to have softened. Even so, the city continues to attract apartment-hunters seeking lower costs and a stable local economy relative to other large Canadian markets.”
Our neighbours to the north in Edmonton also recorded a decline in interest, ranking 12th nationally and falling out of the top 10 for the first time in a while.
Notably, Alberta did not place any cities in the top 10 for the first time in more than a year. Edmonton (#12) and Calgary (#20) eased as new supply caught up. According to Yardi data, both cities now have Canada’s highest apartment vacancy rates, even as Alberta posted one of the country’s strongest interprovincial migration rates last year.
You can view the full renter interest report online.
With files from Laine Mitchell