Barrie is among the most expensive places in Canada to rent a one bedroom apartment.
According to a new report from Padmapper.com, an average one bedroom apartment in Barrie costs about $1,100. That’s up 4.5 per cent from February and puts Barrie at the number five spot on their most expensive rental markets.
In November, Barrie wasn’t even on Padmapper’s top 10 list.
The top spot on the list went to Vancouver, where it costs $1,900 on average to rent a one bedroom apartment.
Ian Delorme rents a one bedroom basement apartment in Barrie with his girlfriend. He wants to buy a home, but with the city’s hot housing market he can't afford to.
“Rent in Barrie is expensive. It is very hard to save, when you got other bills to pay for too.”
As people are forced to rent for longer, the demand for rental properties goes up in a city that already has a shortage.
In 2016, Barrie's vacancy rate was 1.3 per cent. A healthy vacancy rate is 5 per cent.
“You're seeing properties that people want to buy to live in. If it gets priced out of your reach, for now, and you need to continue renting then that shifts some demand over to the rental part of it,” says real estate agent Colin Behan.
The City of Barrie is doing what it can to deal with the lack of affordable housing. It has committed to building 840 new units in the next decade and it has changed the laws surrounding rentals.
“Second suites, which is what we call an apartment in a home, are now legal in Barrie,” says Mayor Jeff Lehman.
Investors are taking advantage of the new laws to convert houses into rental properties. The only trouble analysts say, is as housing prices soar and investors try to make back their money, rent goes up too.
Leaving people like Delmore feeling like they're playing a never ending game of catch-up.
