Young professionals struggle to rent in 'crazy' real estate markets

For many young professionals chasingthedream of home ownership,"I'll be renting forever" isa common lamentas real estate prices in hotspots like Toronto and Vancouver remain sky-high.

But even with good jobs and decent incomes, some 20- and 30-somethings are realizingthat renting an apartment or condo is no easy task in theseenormouslycompetitive housing markets.

"It's impossible and that's with two working professional people," said Alena Rebmann, 32, of Surrey, B.C.,whois searching for an apartment or condoto rent in Vancouver with her husband,Nawab Singh.

Airbnbhas been blamed for worsening the situation in Vancouver and Toronto bytaking more apartments and condos out ofthe long-term rental market as owners try to make more money by renting them to more people for short stays.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has said he wants to combat the trend byimposinga licence requirement on short-term rentals. He has also vowed to create a vacancy tax oninvestmenthomes including condosthat owners leaveempty inan effort to encourage more rental availability.

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But experts say the rental crunches inboth citiesare largely due to broader economic factors, including a combination ofpositive growthin the job market with prohibitivelyhigh housing prices.

When the job market improves and young people are working,they're more likely to"move out of their parents' basements" and look for homes of their own, saidAndrew Scott, asenior market analyst for the Greater Toronto Area with CMHC.

But asthesenew renters enter the market, existing tenantsaren't creating new vacancies, since they're choosing to keep rentinginstead of trying to buy a pricey home.

Thatcombination contributes to a"very tight rental market," saidRobyn Adamache, CMHC'sprincipal market analyst in Vancouver.

She says the rental landscape in Vancouver is also complicated by its geography, which limits how much new housing can be created.

"We're surrounded by the mountains, the ocean, the border," Adamache said, noting there'salso a significant amount of land in the Vancouver area reserved for agriculture that can't be developed.

Roommates needed

Whatever the reasons behind the low vacancy rates, young professionals in both cities are trying different tactics to deal with high rental prices and stiffcompetition for the apartments and condosthat become available.

Sami Larbi, 27, recently got a promotion at thesoftware firm where he works and is eager to finally move out of his parents' home in Vancouver. With amonthly rent budget of $1,200, hehas reluctantly placed an ad on Craigslist seeking a roommate.

"I've lived with my big family all my life, so it would be nice to live by myself for once," Larbisaid. "But that's just not a reality in Vancouver."

He says many of hisfriends are in the same boat.If they have a boyfriend or girlfriend, they move in together to save on rent.If they don't, they need one or two roommates to share the cost.

It's crazy.Despite all the towers, all the cranes, all thehighrises...there is a limited number of rentals in the city.- Torontoreal estate agentJarrodArmstrong

Even whenthey can afford the rent,potential tenants often find themselves in competition with several othersvying for the same apartment or condo.

Some people, like Rebmannin Vancouver, try to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd byposting ads with photos andinformation about themselves that they hope will appealto landlords.

"My husband and I are a quiet, clean, non-smoking, respectable professional couple with a small kitten(our cat has clipped nails so she does not scratch)," Rebmann's"Apartment Wanted" adon Craigslist reads. "Please call/email /text me. We are very reliable and have excellent references!"

'Call back and it's gone'

She says they make sure they have the necessary documentation ready for landlords,including references andpaystubs.

"[It's] almost like a full ...background screening check on every level," she said. "You submit all this and you look fantastic on paper and you go and you ... get interviewed in order to even be considered a candidate."

Rebmann, whohas been searching for a few months, says rental units aresnapped up almost as soon as they are listed.

"Every day I'm like on Craigslist and talking to realtors," she said. "They'll have something and thenI'll call back and it's gone."

Shane Lee, a 29-year-old who works at a car dealership in Toronto, said he and his wife had to be "lightning quick" to renttheir one-bedroom-plus-dencondominium, at a cost of $1,850 per month,in the developing downtown neighbourhood of Regent Park.

The couple enlisted the help of a real estate agent (who works with Jarrod Armstrong)to find a rental home something Lee said he hadn't needed to do when searching for a place to live several years ago.

"I've never needed help from anybody, I kind of just browsed myself, found a place and, you know, made it happen on my own."

But he doubts the couple would have even known their condo was available to rent without the agent's help, because many units didn't appear in thelistings they were searching themselves.

"She had a lot of options that we didn't even know existed," Leesaid."It's definitely not a renter's market."

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