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10 = 5 Waterloo Chronicle | Thursday, January 26, 2023 RENTS MAY HAVE PEAKED, BUT SUPPLY SHORTAGES SPELL TROUBLE AHEAD ROBERT WILLIAMS robertwilliams@torstar.ca A momentary pause in rent increases for the re- gion's rental market should offer a welcome boost to would-be renters, but un- derlying supply problems remain a concern in all ma- jor local markets. After a year. of d double: digit Keucherons Waterloo and Cambridge, early indica- tors from real-time rental websites like Zumper show rents for a one-bedroom ana appear to have in the last months of 2022. “Plus HST. Save 64% off Prices have seen a dra- matic run-up over the last ye due in large part to landlords passing on high- r mortgage costs to ten- ants. Since March, the Bank of Canada has in- creased the interest rate by 400 basis points, moving it from 0.25 per cent to 4.25 cent. For landlords with vari- able-rate mortgages, the in- creases have been disas- A one-bedroom rental property with a $400,000 mortgage and 1.45 per cent interest rate costa landlord just under $1,600 per month in mortgage payments last February. Today, that same unit with a 5.45 per cent in- terest rate costs about $2,430 per month, an in- crease of $830. The bigger the land- lord's mortgage, the bigger the monthly rent increase. With some landlords un- able to absorb the cost, many have been forced to ass on the expenses to ten- ant one/ -bedroom apart- ment Cambridge reached a peak rental price in November of about $1,950 since dropped to about $1,850 per month in Janu- ks ae r = David Bebee/Waterloo Region Record After a year of double-digit rent increases, rents in the regio! appear to be stabilizing, but a shortage of units mean rents will likely still stay high. ary. Similarly, the same type of apartment in Kitch- ener reached a peak of about $1,850 per month in December, and has also dropped to about $1,800 in January. Due to a lack of activity in Waterloo, the site doesn't recent monthly changes. Theslowdown inrentsis coinciding dc id Harman Goyal, a realtor with RE/MAX Twin City. "We're starting to see units that wouldn't be on month, sometimes a couple of months (to get rented)," he said. "It's the time of the but it's definitely slowing down from where it Wint ter is typically a slow time for tition, the best way to se- cure a lease was to stand out from the group. With some rental list- ings getting up to 100 appli yy year of rent up front, while others offered more per month than the listed rent. sweetening the deal as de- Greenwin, , , a large prop- erty management compa- have enough rental datato the market for more thana giveanaccurateestimateof week last year now takinga See ‘THERE’, page 11 WATERLOO REGION SAVE 64% OFF FRIDAY AND SATURDAY HOME DELIVERY NOW JUST A WEEK FOR 52 WEEKS! WATERLOO REGION WATERLOO REGION RECORD couples as housing market tanks ng SUBSCRIBE AT: wroffer.ca/deal/CNWRLOW OR CALL: 1-800-210-5210 and quote code CNWR LOW therecord.com. The New York ce pit 15, 2023. waterloochronicle.ca