If you are looking for a place to rent in Sparwood, it’s not going to be easy. The District’s vacancy rate currently sits at 2.42 per cent, the lowest ever recorded.
Every year, Sparwood’s planning department talks to local apartment owners, seniors’ housing, and mobile home park managers to find out how many vacancies are available at their properties. The informal survey was conducted this year between February and March and found just 11 units in the entire community available for rent.
Of the 455 potential units available for rent, there are eight vacant apartments and three vacant mobile homes. Giving the District cause for concern is the fact that there are no vacancies at any of Sparwood’s three seniors’ homes.
“I have concerns that waiting lists are as long as they are for the seniors,” commented Councillor Sharon Fraser. “I sympathize in that I really don’t want these seniors having to leave this community because they can no longer stay in their own home and there is nowhere to go within this community at all.”
Average vacancy rates for apartments and seniors’ housing have varied in the years since the informal survey began. Not including mobile homes, the 2013 vacancy rate is 3.9 per cent, in comparison to 8.9 per cent in 2012. The all-time high was recorded at 17 per cent in 2004.