Student housing in London not meeting demand

A recent survey conducted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMA) indicates that current off-campus student housing availability in London is insufficient.

The report, which was released in early February, surveyed the areas surrounding universities in the cities of Waterloo, St. Catherines, London, Kingston and Guelph.

Despite student housing not meeting the increasing enrollment demand, Erica McLerie, senior market analyst for CHMA, explained that in most cases, the secondary market compensates for the deficiency.

“There isn’t as much of an increase in new housing construction for apartments geared for and advertised for students. However, in most cases the secondary market or other private apartments always pick up the slack,” McLerie said.

While this may cause concern for students enrolling in 2017, Mc- Lerie assured that students should not be concerned about being unable to find a place to live because buildings listed for the general public are often rented out to students.

Victor Minkov, a third year Western student in the faculty of science, explained that one of his most important criteria when it comes to finding an off-campus residence is being within walking distance to campus. Minkov spent his first year in an on-campus residence and second year at Luxe. Luxe is a recently built, off-campus student apartment located on Richmond that holds approximately 1,200 Western students. Minkov now lives with a roommate in a renovated apartment in an older building.

“No fancy amenities here, but that is reflected in the rent which is almost half of what I was paying at the luxe,” Minkov said.

Originally from Toronto, Minkov said that overall, he has been satisfied with rentals thus far when it comes to searching for a place to live in London.

“I think in terms of inventory and availability of decent rentals, it has definitely increased and improved over the years,” Minkov said.

According to StatsCan, the population of students in Ontario between 17 and 22 years of age is expected to decrease from 2014 up until 2022 which would reduce local enrollment and furthermore student housing demand.

However, supply and demand is expected to stabilize due the recent increase of international student enrollment. According to the Council of Ontario Universities (CUDO), international student enrollment in Ontario universities has grown by 96 per cent in the last 10 years.

“It’s definitely not an oversupply in markets in London but not necessarily an undersupply either… and there may be new student markets being planned or being built and that will basically replace some older stock that’s there,” McLerie said.

Due to the current undersupply of student housing and student housing being built, students may see a slight increase in rent prices each year.

“Because most of the student demand is being met and enrollment is not forecasted to increase, it will be relatively flat over the next few years,” McLerie said. “The prices should not be going up more than the rent review guidelines or the cost of living.”