CMHC Rental Report: About the Windsor Market

CMHC has released their annual report on the rental market. This report looks at rental statistics for all of Canada overall as well as in some specific markets. Windsor-Essex is one of those markets and we’ll take a look at some statistics and what has led to the changes seen in the market this past year.

Let's start off with some statistics about our local market. The overall vacancy rate rate rose from 2.9% to 3.6% in 2020 with an increase in overall average rent by 8.4% to $937. Looking a bit deeper into the market by bedroom type, the bachelor vacancy rate was 6.7% with an average rent of $699. One-bedroom had a vacancy rate of 3.9% and an average rent of $896. Two-bedroom had a vacancy rate of 2.5% with an average rent of $1,027. Three plus bedroom vacancy rates have been suppressed in the report but the average rent was reported as $1,214.

As noted above the Windsor CMA (census metropolitan area) saw an increase of the vacancy rate by 0.7%. This was caused by a decrease in the demand for rental properties while the supply of rental properties remained relatively unchanged. There are two main reasons believed for this change.

First is the economic impacts of COVID-19. By mid-August 2020, our region had spent nearly 1.5 more months than most other areas in stricter stages of lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. Prolonged outbreaks in Essex County farms over the summer months in addition to our proximity to the U.S., our economy was more adversely impacted, especially with the Canada-U.S. border closures. From a rental standpoint, the youth population aged 15-to-24, were most impacted and this is the age group with the highest propensity to rent. These job losses across all age groups likely contributed to a slower pace of rental household formation.

Second, some market research proposed that fewer international post secondary students resided in Windsor in the fall 2020 as compared to the previous year, with up to as many as 30% studying abroad due to the pandemic. With classes moved online and travel restricted, less international students were renting. This was pretty consistent with national data, showing a 37% reduction. This also likely contributed to lower rental demand in 2020, helping to lead to the increase. If you would like to learn more and read the full report, it is available below.

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