Shukuko Abe sealed the deal with a delicious turkey panini.
But the hunt for a rental unit by the owner of Squamish’s Naked Lunch restaurant was far from a joke. Kuko was on the lookout for housing for an employee – a staff member with a partner, two children, a dog and a cat. And while she started her search two months before the family needed to move into their new home, Abe never expected the search would come down to the wire.
“There was nothing available,” she said.
Abe trawled Craigslist and visited the community’s real estate and land management companies. After coming up empty handed, she started to worry that nothing would open up and the family would end up on the street.
“Everything seemed very expensive and some of the less desirable suites I visited had up to 30 people coming to see the space,” Abe said.
Abe is not alone in her experience, said Michael Roblin. The owner of Dynamic Property Management told the Squamish Chief the company was “working at about zero per cent vacancy right now.”
The office is receiving rental inquiries from people all over the country, Roblin said. The majority of requests seem to come from young families looking to move out of Vancouver, but they’re not limited to within B.C., he said, noting they recently spoke with one customer moving from Hawaii to work at Quest University.
“The people inquiring are coming from all over,” Roblin said.
The real estate market seems to be ramping up after a dormant period starting in 2008, he noted. With the upswing in the economy and real estate sales, landlords that were sitting on their properties are now sticking up the “For Sale” signs – diminishing the rental pool, Roblin said.
“Since late fall through spring it has just been going like crazy,” he said.
The Howe Sound Women’s Centre has fielded calls from women looking for housing availability, the centre’s executive director Sheila Allen said, noting the organization manages a couple of its own units.
With rental prices on the raise, a lot of people are holding onto what they’ve got, she said. That in turn results in less rentals on the market. Affordability is a constant concern for the centre’s clients and stakeholders, Allen said. The organization’s apartments rent for $850 a month, which can be a high rate for some single-mothers with children, she said.
Abe posted a “rent wanted’ sign up at her business. While checking Craigslist on an hourly schedule she was the first person to reply to an ad about an apartment at The Spectacle. Abe knew the landlord, who joked that he would consider her applications if a turkey panini accompanied it. She brought two to the viewing.
