The provincial government released a new study focusing on rental vacancy rates throughout Alberta last month, with results revealing accommodation can be hard to come by in northeastern Alberta.
The apartment vacancy and rental cost survey (AVS) reviews building type, building age, number of units, cost of rent and number of vacancies for rental properties in rural communities with populations between 1,000 and 10,000 people.
Amongst those communities surveyed locally were Bonnyville, St. Paul and Elk Point. According to the survey, Bonnyville was one of only nine communities provincially to report a 0 per cent vacancy rate last year.
“I really give my sympathy out to people coming to this area and trying to find accommodation right now – it's just horrible out there at the moment,” said Iris Scherger, a local realtor at Royal LePage. “We are a very high priced, low availability community right now.”
Although affordable housing and accommodation availability has been an ongoing issue in the Town of Bonnyville for years, Scherger said the situation is as “bad as it ever has been” right now.
“I have never seen conditions this bad. We've had issues before where people thought it was bad, but at least then we had basement suites and the odd (apartment) we could offer. We're at the point now where people are just looking for a room in a house because they know there just isn't anything available,” Scherger said. “Starting from last year, this is the worst I've ever seen it in Bonnyville.”
The study's results were drawn from a survey of a total of 11,750 units with a response rate of 98 per cent. The results stated the lowest rental rates, per unit type, in the province are found in southern Alberta, while the highest rest in the north.
Provincial average rental rates by unit type were $593 for bachelor units, $685 for one-bedroom units, $816 for two-bedroom units, $911 for three-bedroom units, and $1,256 for units with four of more bedrooms. Scherger said you would be lucky to find anything in Bonnyville below $1,000.
According to the study the highest rental rates for two-bedroom and four-bedroom unit types were found in Banff, and the highest rental rates for one-bedroom and three-bedroom units were found in Fox Creek. The Town of Coaldale has the lowest rental range for one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
The average rate of vacancy, by unit type, was 4.6 per cent for bachelor units, four per cent for one-bedroom units, 3.2 per cent for two-bedroom units and three-bedroom units, and zero per cent for units with four or more bedrooms. Out of 372 units tested in the survey, none were vacant in Bonnyville.
Such is the sudden influx of growth experienced in the Bonnyville region over the past year, Scherger said it was inevitable that the town's housing problem would only intensify, but she envisages a brighter future for the town and its residents in the coming years.
“We had such a heavy, heavy influx of people coming into Bonnyville in the last year that our area structure just wasn't able to support it,” Scherger said. “When you have such a large number of people moving into a community within a six month period, it's not something that a town the size of Bonnyville is prepared for.”
She added, “In a couple of years, I think we'll be way more prepared to handle not only the current population, but any growth spikes we may experience also. Decisions are being made to see to that, as we may see (added) investment in (the housing sector) and the extra work camps going in will help to alleviate so much of the pressure we're currently experiencing.”
With files from Sam McDonald (St. Paul Journal staff)
