KW Community Foundation report shines concern on rental market

By Mark Pare

A new report from the KW Community Foundation is shining a light on a concerning trend when it comes to affordable housing locally.

Just for context, a healthy market is considered to have a vacancy rate of around three per cent.

In a snapshot from October of last year for apartments, the rate didn't even touch two per cent for anything below $1,450 a month.

The low end of anything below $625 a month had a rate of zero per cent.

Lead author of the report Steve Ayer says in the last five years, Waterloo Region has been losing just over a thousand affordable rental units a year.

Meantime, the same report stated between 2015 and 2020, the population of Waterloo Region grew by 12 per cent — more than 63,700 people — and considered the fastest growing population by percentage in all of Canada and the United States.

But by the same token, the growth has been outpacing new housing more than 3.5 times.

You can read the full report HERE.

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