General University Area Updates and Rumours

[BuildingScout]

I was paying $500+utilities in a house close to Uptown in 2007/8, when enrollment was about 26,000.  It's now about 31,000.

The university sure has been growing. All those people have to live somewhere!

Sure, if you compare increases in enrollments at UW and WLU against built housing stock during the last 10 years the numbers are not that far apart. The point is that we are about to add 5,000 bedrooms on top of that at a time when forecasts call for more or less stable student numbers. 

The prices I'm seeing strongly suggest that we have a bit of oversupply as it is already. I don't recall seeing much outside dinky basement apartments below $400 for the Winter term in the last decade.

Places like Icon 330 and Phillip Square will still be built, because their proximity to the Universities will save them from lowering their prices. The places that will see reductions in rents are buildings farther out, like the high rises in the general area of Union and King or badly kept units like some of the townhouses in the Lakeshore area.

There is still a strong demand for professional units, particularly bachelor/1 bedroom units, which seems to be a strong focus of 100 Victoria/1 Victoria/K2 and even Icon 330.