Mario Paquin doesn't speak English, doesn't know anybody in Calgary and doesn't have a job. But when the 40-year-old from Quebec City arrived on the outskirts of the city June 18 looking for work as a ceramic tile layer, the only real obstacle to planting new roots — finding a place to live — is one thing he doesn't have to worry about.
Mr. Paquin brought his own home: a recreational vehicle he bought a month ago for the sole purpose of making the trip west.
For now, he's living at a campground just outside the city limits, but he hopes to buy a house. And he has Aurore Gionet, a long-time friend who tagged along to act as his translator until he gets settled.
Calgary is desperate to find workers. Once lured here, however, people quickly learn there are few affordable places to live.
Years of landlords offering free utilities, waiving the first month's rent, and forgoing rent increases to keep tenants happy have given way to rental units that are expensive and hard to find.
“It's a very tight market out there, very tight,” says Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Apartment Association, which represents the owners of most of the city's residential rental units.
In its annual survey, the association found the vacancy rate dropped to 1.6 per cent in April from 5.1 per cent a year earlier. Put another way, there were 259 vacant apartments, compared with 1,050 a year ago.
The vacancy rate has dropped even further in the past two months, according to Mr. Baxter, and could hit 0.5 per cent by April of next year.
Analysts point to the waves of migration to the city, lack of new construction, higher prices for construction materials, higher interest rates, soaring resale prices for homes, and condo conversions for the apartment shortage.
There are about 43,000 rental units in the city, compared with about 50,000 a few years ago, giving Calgary the fewest rental units per capita among 26 metropolitan areas across Canada, according to Richard Corriveau, regional economist for the Canada Mortgage and House Corp.
And property owners are playing catch-up with rent increases, he said.
“Our forecast this year is double digits,” Mr. Corriveau said. “We'll likely see 15 per cent and some units could see well beyond that in terms of the increase in their rents. That will be among the highest rent increases we've seen in history.”
Alberta law allows rent hikes of any amount, but tenants must be given three months written notice and increases can only be implemented every six months. The average monthly rent in Calgary for a bachelor apartment is now $555 and a two-bedroom suite is $826, according to the city's apartment association.
Property managers now have waiting lists and are bombarded with prospective tenants when vacancies arise. One property manager reported 50 calls in one morning after posting an advertisement on a website. And the situation is only expected to get worse for would-be tenants. Net migration is expected to continue to climb. In 2004, 2,253 people moved to the city, according to the CMHC, which predicts 23,000 migrants this year.
“Everybody's arriving here in search of jobs, which they're finding, but with that, everybody's looking for a property,” Mr. Corriveau said.
Still, some people are forgoing home buying or renting altogether. Now, the recreational vehicle industry and campgrounds are among the unexpected beneficiaries of the boom.
Field work in the oil industry has workers turning to mobile living spaces and companies using them as portable offices, said Kyle Redmond, general manager of Bucars, which bills itself as Calgary's RV centre.
Minnie and Henry Braeutigam have operated Mountain View Farm Campground just east of Calgary for 19 years, but they have never seen business this good. All 202 spaces are taken, many by long-term tenants, and the calls looking for space keep coming in.
Some are between homes as construction delays have postponed possession dates, others are those who find rent too pricey and others are newcomers lured by the boom.
“I have a job there,” said Ms. Braeutigam, repeating a call from a man who just phoned from Ontario, to which she replied: “I can help you for one week.”
