Station Park | 18, 28, 36, 40, 50 fl | U/C

[tomh009]

This is true. We could toss in 5,000 units tomorrow and still have a low vacancy rate. These condos and apartments being aren't going to have much, if any, effect on pricing and vacancy.

CMHC stats say 37,664 rental units and a 3.0% vacancy rate (substantially higher than the Ontario average of 1.8%). Let's add in 50% rentals for the new condo buildings in the near term (Barra, Charlie West, DTK, Young, OTIS, first Garment St tower and Avenue M) and that's at least 700 rental units. Add Drewlo, Arrow 2, Market Flats, 262 Queen, Scott & Weber and that's probably at least 900 dedicated rental units.

1600 rental units is over 4% of the rental stock, and that would bump the 3% vacancy rate up significantly. (5000 units would be nearly 15% of the rental stock.)

This is actually a bit misleading, sorry. The 37,664 is actually the total rental stock for the region, so Kitchener alone is likely well under 20,000 (lots of student rentals in Waterloo) and 1600 new rental units would increase the rental stock by more than 8%.