According to the results of the Rental Market Survey conducted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in October 2014, the apartment vacancy rate1 in the primary rental market in the Regina Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) was three per cent, up from 1.8 per cent in October 2013. The higher vacancy rate can be attributed to rising supply of newly constructed rental apartments that more than surpassed a more modest increase in rental demand between the two fall surveys. Regina’s persistently low vacancies in previous years have spurred the construction of rental apartments in the past two years. As many of these units have been completed, this has added to the overall supply levels across the CMA. On the demand side, the contraction in Regina’s full-time job creation, the arrival of fewer non-permanent residents so far this year, and the movement into homeownership by some renter households have moderated the growth in rental demand. Together, these factors have resulted in a higher apartment vacancy rate in the October 2014 survey.
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