Apartment hunters in St. John's 'desperately' searching as renters grapple with plummeting vacancy rate

Stacey Crant has a one per cent success rate when it comes to actually getting her foot in the door of a rental property.

The 33-year-old St. John's retail worker has been searching with her roommate for a new apartment since July — and says out of over 100 listings she's responded to, only one actually offered a viewing.

"We're good long-term tenants," Crant said. "We're basically a landlord's dream. We're quiet, we're clean, we don't cause any trouble."

But despite her glowing reviews, Crant said, she can't compete with the overwhelming number of people looking for a place to live.

St. John's has been grappling with an unusually low rental vacancy rate for the past couple of years. 

Today it's bottomed out at 1.5 per cent — the lowest it's been in over a decade, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data. That's despite the number of private rentals actually increasing by just over 400 units since 2020.

Four years ago, the city's vacancy rate was 7.5 per cent.

It's not clear what's caused the rapid decline in available places to rent, but Crant says the reality of apartment hunting feels like a second job. 

"When landlords are making these posts on [Facebook] Marketplace and such, they're getting so bombarded it's impossible for them to read all the messages," Crant said.

"It's not getting scary. It has been scary for quite some time now."

Crant and her roommate finally landed an apartment in the Kenmount Terrace neighbourhood last week, after nearly three months of searching. If they hadn't found a new place by October — when a new owner was set to take possession of the house they're renting and evict them — Crant says she'd either have had to move home to Grand Bank and quit her job, or move into her car.

It's not an unusual scenario these days, said Sherwin Flight, who oversees the Newfoundland Tenant and Landlord Support Group on Facebook.

Flight, who's had his finger on the pulse of the St. John's rental market since 2012, says he's seen a clear shift in recent months. 

"It's getting harder and harder for people to find a place," Flight said.

"If we went back, say maybe three or four years ago, the majority of the posts in those groups would be landlords offering places for rent, and then tenants commenting underneath that they were interested. These days that has kind of flipped. Most of the posts are tenants looking for places. Desperately looking for places. That word comes up a lot these days."

WATCH | If you're struggling to find a place to rent in St. John's, you're not alone:

Where are all the apartments? In St. John’s, most of them are already rented

2 months ago

Duration 2:48

The rental vacancy rate in St. John’s is the lowest it’s been in a decade, and renters are feeling the pinch. The CBC’s Malone Mullin speaks to one rental advocate about the desperation tenants are facing in the last few months.

A recent poll in the group shows a large percentage of respondents saying they've spent over a year looking for a place to rent, he added.

Flight says he doesn't know why vacancy rates have plummeted but he thinks increasing urban density — due to more people moving to St. John's during the pandemic — may have contributed to the crunch. He also suspects landlords have run into financial trouble in the last couple of years, and have either sold their rentals or turned them into short-term suites.

"Presumably those kinds of landlords could be kept in the long-term rental market or brought back into it if those problems were addressed. I think we also need a lot more social housing," he said.

The City of St. John's has taken note, announcing in March that it would offer financial incentives to developers looking to construct apartment buildings and to homeowners wanting to add rental units to their homes or backyards.

A spokesperson said last week the city has six multi-unit purpose-built rental projects receiving a fee break under that program, and has had 26 applications for the homeowner grant program — two of which are for backyard suites.

But easing the strain on prospective renters needs to happen quickly, says Crant.

"It definitely takes a toll on your mental health," she said. "The thought of potentially becoming homeless at some point is kind of crazy.… The way things are right now, it can literally happen to anybody. I don't think any of us renters are safe."

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