The economic slowdown could be a good thing for people looking for a place to rent in Edmonton this year, predicts a new report from Avison Young’s real estate firm in Edmonton.
The multi-family report says Edmonton’s vacancy rate will double in 2009 to four per cent, compared to an average of two per cent seen in the city in the last 10 years.
And after seeing the number of apartment tran-sactions plummet in 2008 by 80 per cent, landlords are already offering incentives to attract tenants — everything from one-month of free rent to free cable TV, said the report.
“This is going to be a year where tenants will have a lot more to choose from,” said Paul Chaput, a multi-family specialist with Avison Young.
“There will be a lot more stability.”
Chaput says the markets would also force some landlords away from jacking rents up by $300 or more, something that was common practice in Edmonton because of its once -booming real estate market.
The report says Edmonton sales volume for apartment transactions will continue to be slow for a while, but will pick up in the second half of 2009.
