To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Thompson remains Manitoba's capital of low apartment vacancy rates.
According to the latest figures from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which releases biannual reports on the status of rental apartments across the province, Thompson's vacancy rate sits at 0.3 per cent - actually a major increase from the previous year, when the rate was 0.1 per cent. However, this still means that there were only three vacant apartments in Thompson at the time of the report.
These statistics captured Thompson's rental market as it stood in October 2010, comparing it to the figures from October 2009 as well as keeping track of the numbers from both time periods for the Winnipeg, Brandon, Steinbach, Hanover, and Portage la Prairie areas.
CMHC also monitors rent prices, which jumped 4.4 per cent over the course of the year - from an average of $640 in 2009 to an average of $668 in 2010. This was higher than the provincial average jump of 4.1 per cent, and provincially behind only Brandon, which saw a five per cent rent hike.
The biggest jump in Thompson vacancies was in one-bedroom apartments, which in 2010 were pegged at a 0.4 per cent vacancy rate, or two vacant units - up from absolute zero in 2009. Two-bedroom units also rose slightly, from 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent, nonetheless only one apartment was actually vacant. Bachelor apartments, as well as those with three or more bedrooms, stayed steady insofar as having no vacancies at the time of the report.
Historically, Thompson's numbers have experienced only slight fluctuations over the last few years. Before the 0.1 number in October 2009, there was an 0.2 number in April of that year, and a rate of absolute zero in October 2008 - meaning that there was not officially a single apartment to be found anywhere in the city.
Provincially, the vacancy rate actually fell slightly, from 1.1 per cent in 2009 to 0.9 per cent in 2010. Winnipeg was the sole reason for this drop - every other area in the survey saw more apartments become vacant, with the biggest shock coming in Portage la Prairie, where the vacancy rate rose from 1.9 per cent to a whopping 6.7 per cent.
Rent prices in Thompson apartments rose across the board, with the most noticeable increases occurring in bachelor apartments - up from $474 to $549, or 15.8 per cent - and apartments with three or more bedrooms - up 13.9 per cent, from $631 to $719. One-bedroom apartments climbed only six per cent, with the average monthly rent increasing from $598 to $634, while a rent increase of 4.2 per cent, from $666 to $694, was seen in two-bedroom units.
While Thompson's larger apartments are a bargain compared to the going rate in the rest of the province - the average unit with three or more bedrooms costs $719 per month in Thompson compared to $931 in Brandon and $1,056 in Winnipeg - the smaller units are among the most expensive in Manitoba. A bachelor apartment in Thompson runs $549 per month, compared to $488 in the next-highest location, Winnipeg, while a one-bedroom Thompson apartment costs $15 less per month than it would in Winnipeg, but $83 more than it would in Brandon.
Dianne Himbeault, a senior market analyst with CMHC, noted that increases across the province were largely due to decreased vacancies and higher competition for apartments.
The average apartment rent jumped 4.1 per cent between 2009 and 2010, despite the Residential Tenancies Branch setting a rent increase guideline of one per cent for the year - raised to 1.5 per cent for 2011. However, a number of buildings are exempt from the guideline, including buildings less than 15 years old where occupancies began after April 9, 2001, buildings less than 20 years old where occupancies started after March 7, 2005, buildings, which have recently been renovated, and apartments renting for $1,105 or more per month.
As of October 2010, CMHA reported that Thompson had a total of 44 bachelor apartments, 494 single-bedroom units, 773 two-bedroom apartments, and 28 units with three or more bedrooms, for a total of 1,339 apartments in the city - well down from the October 2009 number of 1,623.
