Also, all those condo conversions, which originally pushed people out of their appartments, are out there, many not selling, and probably a lot will end up re-entering the market as rentals.

And if another 2,000 people leave for higher wages and cheaper housing, then demand for rental units in Saskatoon will go down pretty quickly.

I believe what you are referring too is the lesson of supply and demand. I was kindly taught this by Roger and now I leave you with that helpful tidbit of why rent is so much.

Thanks for the insight. This is what we need is insight from other places (as the vancouverite from before has shown as well). What my argument still says is that rents are far too high here with a vacancy rate that is far too low here. Glad to know Calgary is still overpriced but i’ll give an example of how calgary differs… I had a friend move out there i worked with in an Architectural firm. They were paying her (and i) $32,000 a year after 8 years experience. She went out there, and immediately started at $54,000 a year. That difference has ACRES of room for higher rent.

It’s nuts. Again Vinny, thanks for adding the Calgary view here too. It’s a bit hard to find credible information even in this day and age.

You sounds like a good landlord for sure. Someone that knows they have a longer term investment, and someone that isn’t just gouging people for rent. See as Jim pointed out, you could have rent increases every 6 months…every 12…every 18….but the thing is if there was no ‘limit’ than the bigger companies (like the ones that tend to MAKE the market value) could raise it triple what htey’d raise it if they could every 3 months… for instance…if they were only allowed every 6 months, the building i’m in, they could raise my rent by 200 bucks instead of the 100 every 3 months. or better yet raise it by 300 or more.

What they have to do is find the threshold of what hte rentalsmen will allow before doing bad publicity and that will be what they raise the rents… I know we’re talkign rent controls here AGAIN lol but in this fast (real or unreal) boom the greed factor has shot way up with the bigger companies beucase they KNOW there are no laws in place besides the 3 month notice item.

kudos for being a decent landlord and human being.

I check the rents in Calgary on a pretty regular basis. I don’t check boardwalk but I check many of the local sites and have several friends that rent. The reason I asked about 1000 bachelor suites and 900 basement suites in the hood is because that is the norm in Calgary. If Saskatoon has that, then the rents are similiar but I doubt it. Keep in mind I said 2 bedroom basement in the HOOD. In nicer areas that basement suite could run you 1300. Most of my Sask friends live in Regina and they say the rents are no where near Calgary but maybe Saskatoon is way more expensive than Regina?

Btw I do know some people renting in boardwalk condos in the hood and they pay 1200/mth for a two bedroom. Not sure how that compares to saskatoon.

Just make sure you are comparing Apples to Oranges. The rents vary greatly depending on the areas in Calgary. If you compare the expensive and new areas in Sask, the houses may cost much more than a suburb area in Calgary. As I said before stats were released a few months ago ( i can’t remember which article) but the highest rents are still Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto by far.

Your views are refreshing! Indeed it appears the landlords dramatically increasing rent are not doing so to keep their profits parallel to expense, but simply for the love of money and quite possibly to watch renters writhe in pain. They don’t actually care how hard pressed tenants are to pay for rent, groceries, transportation, electricity, phone, dependents, (forget about savings!) or they wouldn’t gouge like they do. It’s very cold-hearted and I don’t give a damn what some on here say about charging as much as the market will bear. Unprovoked efforts to make conditions worse for the lower class will push many over the edge, and even more will fall into that category. Further people will be unable to EVER afford owning their home.

I find it unbelievable how some homeowners mock those who aspire to be as rent continues to climb. It’s really twisted. I guess those people somehow feel they are more deserving? A caring individual (such as yourself) would see those who “have not” and show support towards improving conditions.

Also, parent’s in SK will NOT be rewarded by Saskaboom when their kids can no longer find affordable rent/real estate. The result: more years of cohabitation, kids moving out of SK, or using most of their paycheck for rent/living and not saving money for a future downpayment. None of those options sound appealing to me if it were my kid.

Poor fluffy, cat taste like chicken, right.

Why not say rent is not allowed to be increased without a year’s notice/or change in ownership, except in the amount to cover utility rate increases? Just because a place goes up in value, doesn’t mean it “costs” the land lord anything more, other than lost potential revenue from sale.

A yearly price seems reasonable, and landlords should need to have it costed out in advance. Forces them to be proactive, but gives tenants lots of time to find alternatives. At least 6 months notice.

Our only worry was losing the very nice tennants we did find to something cheaper. Perhaps we need not lose sleep over that?? At least our tennants can rest assured that no rent increases will be hitting them any time soon. We just don’t think that’s a fair way to treat people.

It’s a shame that so many landlords seem to think that tennants are simply money making machines. That’s not fair. If we could afford to rent it for any less, we would have. I certainly don’t agree with bleeding people until they can’t afford to feed themselves or heat the house. What would justify paying those ridiculous rates for a stinking shared apartment building?

I sincerely hope that the greed that seems to be rampant these days is somehow nipped in the butt. Maybe rent controls are something to be looked at? People renting their homes should not have to worry about these sort of increases every few months. Not fair, but what can be done?

I seriously doubt that they’re in Warman. I don’t really think it’s any cheaper to live there. Add in the extra fuel costs and it’s probably higher.

On CMHC, you’ll recall that they predicted a 28% increase for Saskatoon early in the year, and a further 9% next year.

Maybe it wasn’t over a year ago (CMHC’s published numbers) but it sure looks like it is now – apparently 2,000 Saskatoon residents disagreed with Saskaboom too! And don’t say they all moved to Warman, I doubt it gained 2,000 residents last year. And even if they did move there (v. Edmonton or Vancouver), a house in Saskatoon is apparently not cool anymore.

“But overcrowding gets old quick, especially when you throw cabin fever into the mix. The low-income families start moving to smaller cheaper cities (PA? Moose Jaw?) and college and first-job kids get fed up and go to Calgary and Vancouver, and the seniors, however much they value their independence, move in with their kids because it’s either do that or shut off the heat and eat Fluffy.

Who do you rent to then?

So rents come back down, and the people who bought as “an investment” discover that yep, it costs 1500 a month to carry the apartment but it only rents for 600 a month, and they sell, but the only available buyer is a real landlord who will only buy properties that cash flow. So the only offer is 1/2 what they paid…

”

Touche for keeping it light hearted!

Two to three years is about what it will take. But when it happens it will be very, very permanent.

Norm: I think the last time you checked the ratio of owner-occupied places had gone up a bit, too.

Rents also include the long-term occupancies (which usually stay static, since landlords normally want to keep long-term tenants) as well as those currently on the market, though, one reason that CMHC’s figures are always crazy low.

But I think the last time I paid 600 a month for a two bedroom was 2006, which is a lifetime ago in Saskatoon terms.

I notice that in Toronto rents are maybe 100 to 200 bucks a month higher than the ones I’m seeing in Saskatoon ads. Which is *insane*.

Yeah the prices are way out of whack. the website is dated July 2008 yet the average house price is stated as $160,577. Their vacancy rates are WAY out of whack too…

Dont you think its funny that we’ve been on this blog for so long and a variety of people are saying rent is gonna go down house prices are gonna crash just wait. Well its been over a year now and all I see is close to double the rent and more choices for buyers. If your gonna wait for rent decreases better prepare for a long winter cause its gonna take at least a couple years if it does happen.

That’s pretty typical of CMHC’s stats. Think you could find a single two-bedroom apartment for $608 a month? I doubt it.

Jim,

I wish you wouldn’t quote me.

I never said half of the units for sale are vacant, and it isn’t so. I said half were either vacant or tenant occupied.

Well, the companies are making hay while the sun shines. It *is* market rent — for the moment. But only for the moment, and my money’s on it being a pretty short moment.

As Jim’s said, the condo conversions are either vacant or being bought by people who plan to rent them or flip them. They’re not being torn down, which means they’re going to come back to the rental market in short order.

Unless there’s a massive flood of tenants to Saskatoon who are all willing to pay Toronto/Vancouver rents for the joys of Saskatoon, the low vacancy rate will go back to what it used to be — 5 or 6%? And rents will drop again.

The current shortage will very quickly change as soon as they come back into the rental market.

Tenants are pretty flexible, and so rent is pretty flexible. It’s always, always, always driven from below, by wages. People can’t pay what they don’t make, so rents adjust to fit. People adjust to fit rents, too — hence, all the basement suite and ‘roommate’ ads on Kijiji, some looking for “another couple to share the second bedroom”.

But overcrowding gets old quick, especially when you throw cabin fever into the mix. The low-income families start moving to smaller cheaper cities (PA? Moose Jaw?) and college and first-job kids get fed up and go to Calgary and Vancouver, and the seniors, however much they value their independence, move in with their kids because it’s either do that or shut off the heat and eat Fluffy.

Who do you rent to then?

So rents come back down, and the people who bought as “an investment” discover that yep, it costs 1500 a month to carry the apartment but it only rents for 600 a month, and they sell, but the only available buyer is a real landlord who will only buy properties that cash flow. So the only offer is 1/2 what they paid…

Forgive me as I drop a silent tear.

Just a WEE bit off….with u know…reality..

The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $608. The average monthly rent for a three-bedroom apartment is $639.

I can see where people would think it’s still affordable here with sites and articles using bad information.

If/when rent in Saskatoon is more expensive than Vancouver, there are MAJOR problems.

That is exactly how it is and i’m glad someone from vancouver says it like it is. Last July i was searching for an apartment, the existing ones in the city were just garbage. I wanted a 1 bedroom place, in a decent area. I stumbled upon one in a nice area that was like a diamond in the rough compared to the other junkheaps…ones by the river, with holes in the walls, rent at that time for those were 800 for a 2 bedroom, or 750 for a 1…i found my place for 530 and moved in happily. Fast foreward to now, my rent is at 750, 850 in october for my 1960′s apartment. Market rent is what they claim. But again if everyone is upping their rents, hey then it’s market value. Every 3 months you get hit…maybe not with the small fry’s that own an apartment building but the bigger companies? oh yeah you’ll get hit with rent increases.

it’s nuts!

The reason for my post is in connection to the comments about rent in Saskatoon. We looked high and low for a “decent” place to rent in Saskatoon. We saw a A LOT of dumps, dark crummy basements suites, and some over priced new vacant condos. In my opinion, the rent in Saskatoon is higher than in many parts of Vancouver (not all parts) because the landlords do not include anything with the rent – the main thing being heating. Aside from a 35.00 per month power bill, most apartments in Vancouver include, heat, hot water, parking, gas, garbadge removal and in some cases cable. Boardwalk which owns a number of properties in Sask. is asking insane prices for the quality of property that you get. Plus, you need to pay for all of the utilities.

During our search, one landlord actually wanted us to pay the strata fee on top of the 1,100 per month for a one bedroom condo. Give me a break. I know for a fact that you can rent an apartment for a very similar price 3 blocks from the beach on the west side of Vancouver.

Finally, perhaps the saddest thing about our rental experience, was that we took a suite in a building downtown (1 bedroom) that is about 1050 per month not including parking. The building has been raising prices to match “market value” and seniors are being forced out of their homes. True they don’t own them, but a rental increase every 3 months of over 100$ per time is devastating to people who are on fixed incomes. As the property manage told us, they have been living in prime real estate at far below market value for way to long. I can’t help wonder where these people will go – dark crummy over priced basement suites perhaps.

Thanks to Norm for providing this site. I have been one of the many people visiting weekly for some time. The nature of the market in Saskatoon is one is which the buyer needs to be informed and you provide readers with some great resources.

If you bought it more than a year ago, good for you, but NOW buying is actually more expensive than renting, ie you will have trouble covering the mortgage with rent. Yes, we all should have bought houses 5 years ago, but we didn’t, so too late for that as an option.

If recently, you probably won’t be able to sell it for more (or the same?) as what you bought it for.

I actually think rent will get cheaper over the coming years, as all those condos that aren’t selling are rented out instead.

If one half (Norm’s number from a while back) of the available properties are vacant, 1/2 of 1500 = 750 VACANT places, just sitting out there, available for rent, if the sellers refuse to reduce their prices enough to actually have a chance at selling them.

Check on bwalk.com. See the thing with articles is, they may not nessessarily have all information considered. I just know from what i’ve seen and found. Not just on bwalk.com but other sites as well, as well as friends i have living in vancouver, clagary etc.