Four years after an oil price crash blamed for more than 40,000 oilpatch job cuts in Western Canada, stability is returning to the residential rental market. Raising rental rates is a lot harder than reducing them, says landlord Jim Rempel of Galactic Properties. In 2014, a typical one-bedroom suite in one of his three four-storey walk-ups in Calgary would rent for $1,125, he said. Founder and CEO Bob Dhillon said the crash of 2015 resulted in a surplus of condominium units on the Prairies that couldn’t be sold and wound up being put on the rental market. The result was higher vacancy rates, lower rents and higher costs as landlords paid more for advertising and apartment upgrades, while also being hit by higher property taxes and employee wages.

Source: thestar March 17, 2019 14:03 UTC