“The Other 30 are Completely, Utterly and Totally Empty.”

The rental market is not as tight as many would have one believe. This from vomitingdog at Rob Chipmans blog 05.Feb.2009 at 1:04pm -

“I am renting in a 12 story Vancouver tower in the South Granville neighbourhood. Of the 40 brand-spanking new units in this building exactly 10 of them are rented. The other 30 are completely, utterly and totally empty with craigslist ads posted several times a day to try to fill them up. And the craigslist ads have been running for 5 months now. If you said that they are over-priced and the landlord is not open to actual market values, I would be hard-pressed to disagree. But it seems to me that landlords, even of big rental buildings, have drunk from the same kool-aid as owners. Anyone who says that the rental market is tight must be referring to bachelor’s and 1-bedrooms at the lower end of the market. But even those are now widely available and sitting empty for 1-3 months in beautiful old heritage walk-ups in this neighbourhood when they never were as available before.”