Discussions

The CMHC has released it's fall rental report and Brandon's vacancy rate is 0.2%. Other than the fact it's extremely low, what's significant about that number is that we're now lower than the Fort McMurray region, making us the lowest of any in Canada for cities 15,000 and higher (**Note** two much smaller cities than us, Thompson and Estevan did come in lower).  
 
Some numbers to put things in perspective...  
 
There were total of 2,977 rental units in Brandon in October. 2,970 of those were rented... leaving you to wonder about the condition of the 7 left over.  
 
The breakdown by size was:  
Bachelor: 92 rented out of 92  
1 bedroom: 998 rented out of 1001  
2 bedroom: 1,819 rented out of 1,823  
3 bedroom+: 60 rented out of 60  
 
Not only that, but the average rent jumped another $21 to $636, about as much as rental control laws would allow it to jump in that short of a period of time. No doubt if supply/demand continues to be like this we can expect a solid continued rise.  
 
With that in mind, how much of a priority do you think this should be for our civic and provincial governments?  
 
What do people know about as far as initiatives in place right now to help solve what I think it's fair to label as a crisis?  
 
Is there anything more that major stakeholders in rental market health (BU, ACC, Maple Leaf, etc) can be doing to improve a situation that no doubt effects them?  
 
Here's the full Manitoba report for anyone that's curious to read more:  
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/odpub/esub/64491/64491_2008_B02.pdf