Rental Apartments in Cobourg

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the vacancy rate in Cobourg for rental apartments is 1.3%, up from 0.5% last year.  These numbers are for October in each year.  The average rent for a 2 Bedroom apartment was $1,063 – up from $1,011 in October 2017.  Although cheaper than Toronto, it’s not as much different as the cost of buying a house.  CMHC also reports on the number of apartments and the number of houses being built.  In October 2017, Cobourg had 31 bachelor apartments, 250 1 bedroom, 589 2 bedroom and 61 3 or more bedroom apartments for a total of 931, up from 920 a year earlier.  Note that these numbers exclude “row” houses.  The tables below give more detail.

Vacancy Rates and Rents

    Vacancy Rate   Average Rent   Units
October 2016 Apartments 0.5% a $950 a 920
  Row + Apartments 0.4% a $968 a 1,082
October 2017 Apartments 1.3% a $1.012 a 931
  Row + Apartments 1.1% a $1,020 a 1,088

Accuracy of estimate shown as a = excellent to d = poor.
Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC),

Quantity of Cobourg Apartments

  October 2016 October 2017
Bachelor 31 31
1 Bedroom 255 250
2 Bedroom 572 589
3 Bedroom + 62 61
Total 920 931

CMHC also gives statistics on the number of housing units built.

Housing Starts

  2016 2017 – to End Sept.
Single 43 34
Semi-detached 16 10
Row 19 33
Apartment 0 10
All 78 87

None of the units started from January to September 2017 were intended for the Rental market.

Note that the vacancy rate in Toronto is also low at 1.1% and the average rent (all sizes) is up and now is at an average of $1,296 per month.

Update on Housing prices

As reported here (Have Real Estate Prices bottomed), house prices in Cobourg have been very volatile over the last year.  In August the average selling price for a house in Northumberland Hills (mostly Cobourg and Port Hope) was $396K.  In October it jumped to $425K but in November fell back to $383K which was only a little higher than September 2016.  Go here for the details. For comparison, the average price for a house in Toronto in November was $780K compared to a peak in April 2017 of $925K.

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Deborah OConnor
6 years ago

Here’s info from the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation about what rental units are included in their surveys. The following excerpt is from their introductory page, and Cobourg and Port Hope detailed vacancy information for this year is found on page eighteen. I’ve copied the link to the entire report below. It’s always helpful to have accurate information and not just guesswork. I have spent years living in downtown apartments, and I would speculate these now empty units are empty because they only have one exit/entrance and bylaws require two for fire safety, along with other repair/maintenance issues that landlords consider too expensive to fix and not worthwhile in the long run. Perhaps a change in the lucrative tax exemptions for empty buildings will convince them to re-think that option now

“Vacancy Rate: CMHC collects data on the primary and secondary rental market annually, in the fall. These data refer to the primary rental market, which only includes rental units in privately initiated
apartment structures containing at least three rental units. The secondary rental market covers rental dwellings that were not originally purpose-built for the rental market, including rental condominiums. The primary vacancy rate and rent level is based on all surveyed structures, while the rent increase is based only on structures common to the survey sample in both the current and previous year. Urban centres with a population of 10,000 + are included in the survey. Detailed reports are available for CMAs”.

https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/odpub/esub/64507/64507_2017_A01.pdf?fr=1511920112189

sandpiper
6 years ago

We need to Qualify what counts as an apartment out here
as we don’t have a Proactive Inspection / building Dept.
and many of the units counted are less than standard and don’t meet many of what would be expected as a health ,fire ,safety,
accessibility
or any other standards of living .

ben
Reply to  sandpiper
6 years ago

And you know this? – How

Pierre
Reply to  sandpiper
6 years ago

“less than standard or other standards of living “ and you know this to be fact, as not mentioned in John’s article……where do you get this stuff.

John Draper
Reply to  Pierre
6 years ago

There are a number of spaces above some stores on King Street that could be used as Apartments but are in poor condition as living spaces. Because no-one has complained, they have not been inspected by the Town. These are not occupied although it’s not known if CMHC includes these spaces in their count of apartments; they are not advertised as Apartments for rent.

manfred s
Reply to  Pierre
6 years ago

Sandpiper has been very involved in the local realestate market for a very long time which I would think gives him the credibility in that field.