Housing vacancy rates remain low in most areas

Between 0.7 % and 3.0 % of dwellings, depending on the region, could accommodate a new tenant right now, reveals a survey conducted from April 6 to 8 by CORPIQ among its members. Respondents totalled more than 50,000 units.

The vacancy rate is 1.5% on the Island of Montreal and 1.3% in the Quebec City area. Less than 1% of the dwellings are without tenants in the Mauricie, Laval and Centre-du-Quebec regions. However, more dwellings are available if we include dwellings that are currently occupied but will soon become vacant because the lease has not been renewed. (see regional table below) 

CORPIQ expects available housing to become even scarcer by July 1, as many landlords have postponed re-rental visits due to the pandemic. When the government relaxes the quarantine guidelines, activity is expected to intensify in real estate leasing and more leases will be signed, later than usual. However, for the past week, CORPIQ has already noticed an increase in the posting of units on its Kangalou^® website as well as on its ProprioEnquête^® website.  

With few units available, landlords are concerned about the pandemic because they do not have a guarantee that their tenants will vacate their units in time to hand over the keys to the new occupant at the end of their lease. Two factors should be considered: the suspension of construction for more than a month - which has been partially lifted on April 20 - may delay the delivery of apartments, condominiums and houses that tenants who have not renewed their leases will soon be moving into; also, tenants at the end of their leases have delayed their search for new housing because of the confinement and may be left with nowhere to go.

In fact, the survey tells us that three out of four landlords (74%) would have a problem meeting the key date for a new lease if the current tenant does not leave as planned. These are 10% of landlords expecting at least one new tenant in May, 8% in June, and 31% of landlords will welcome new households in July.

 

CORPIQ survey on available dwellings
From April 6 to 8, 2020
	Unoccupied1	Available2	Conceded3	Total
Laval	0,8%	1,2%	0,1%	2,1%
Outaouais	1,1%	2,5%	0,0%	3,6%
Centre-du-Québec	0,5%	4,2%	0,1%	4,7%
Saguenay-Lac St-Jean	2,9%	2,0%	0,0%	4,9%
Montréal	1,5%	3,7%	0,2%	5,4%
Lanaudière	2,4%	3,4%	0,1%	5,8%
Québec	1,3%	4,5%	0,1%	6,0%
Mauricie	0,7%	5,3%	0,2%	6,2%
Laurentides	2,5%	3,8%	0,1%	6,5%
Chaudière-Appalaches	3,0%	3,7%	0,0%	6,7%
Montérégie	1,7%	5,6%	0,2%	7,5%
Estrie	2,5%	5,8%	0,6%	8,9%
Bas St-Laurent-Gaspésie	1,1%	9,3%	0,7%	11,1%
To use with caution
Abitibi-Témiscamingue	2,7%	4,4%	0,0%	7,1%
Côte-Nord et Nord-du-Québec	N/D	N/D	N/D	N/D
1 How many vacant units do you currently have in each region?
2 Do you currently have at least one tenant who has advised you that he or she will not be renewing his or her lease (i.e. his or her unit will become available, but it has not yet been re-rented)?
3 Do you currently have at least one dwelling occupied by a tenant who has advised you that he is going to transfer his lease to someone else?

Survey conducted by CORPIQ from April 6 to 8, 2020 to which 2012 landlords and managers of rental housing in Quebec, representative of the market, responded. Margin of error of 1.9%, 19 times out of 20. More than 1,000 dwellings surveyed per region, excepted Saguenay-Lac St-Jean and Abitibi-Témiscamingue.