Vacancy rate hit decade-high in 2009

NATHEN GALLAGHER
Pass Herald Reporter

According to a provincial survey, rental units in the Pass are looking a little emptier than they have in the past.

The 2009 Apartment Vacancy and Rental Cost Survey, released recently by Alberta Housing and Urban Affairs, looked at 59 rural communities with populations between 1000 and 10,000.

While the average vacancy rate rose from 3.8 percent in 2008 up to 8.1 percent in 2009, the Crowsnest Pass vacancy rate rose from 10.8 percent to 20.6 percent –– the highest vacancy rate in the last ten years, and significantly higher than the 1.4 percent rate in 2007.

The survey looked at four-plex units, apartment buildings, row-houses, store-top units, and larger multi-plex units. It did not survey single family houses that may be for rent.

Chief Administrative Officer Gordon Lundy, presenting the survey results to council, said that he found it interesting that rental costs have not gone down even though the vacancy rate has risen.

The survey presented a list of weighted rent costs by bedroom type. One-bedroom units were at $522, up significantly from $433 in 2007. Two-bedrooms are listed at $554, up from $487 in 2007. Three-bedrooms rose from $546 in 2007 to $695 in 2009. Bachelor units rose from $350 in 2007 to $425 in 2009.

In 2007, at the height of local growth expectations and before the global economic troubles, the Pass had only a 1.4 percent vacancy rate, the lowest of any point in the past ten years.

A total of 68 rental units were identified and surveyed in the Pass. The vast majority of the units were more than 10 years old.

Between 2000 and 2005 the Pass vacancy rate hovered between 12.5 percent and 17.5 prevent. It fell to 6.9 percent in 2006 and 1.4 percent in 2007, before rising again in 2008 and 2009.

According to the survey, the Pass has the fourth highest vacancy rate of all the communities surveys. Only Elk Point at 40.2 percent, High Level at 22.8 percent, and Tofield at 21.8 percent were higher.

Bowden, Drumheller, Fairview, Provost, and Jasper were rated at a zero percent vacancy rate.

Council did not discuss the survey results at this time.


Note: More proof that we have been poorly managed and are desperately in need of a fix. A fix that will surely come this fall on the heels of an election. Our community of communities needs to let go of the past and get on with the future. In this regard, a new mayor and council, a revamping of Community Futures, and hard-nosed bargaining (e.g. River Run) and promoting of a Community Plan are what is in order here.

It has been said, Community development leading to economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being is usually initiated by individuals who have passion and vision. I am still waiting to hear some 'passion and vision' from current and potential leaders in our community?

Support structures are necessary to manage the community development process as well as the change it creates. We have seen that our local Community Futures over the years has become 'static' and no longer serves a useful purpose as a result. As someone on this blog recently pointed out... "It's not healthy having all the same people making decisions all the time"... This council needs to start the process of change by attacking the symptoms of our disease. A change of mayor and some members of council is only half the battle, the other half is changing our organizational structures i.e. Community Futures, so that it is allowed to fulfill its mandate of bringing economic development to our community by supporting local small businesses and entrepreneurs, and by acting as a catalyst to achieve economic diversification for our municipality.


The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.

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