
Apartment List's quarterly Renter Migration Report (Q4 2020) offers up some interesting insights into what may be playing out in the apartment sector right now. The most striking takeaway seems to be the surge in people looking for short-term rentals (leases of six months or less). And while the data has historically shown that those looking to move to a new metro are more likely to be looking for a short-term rental compared to those searching within their current metro, that spread really widened starting in the spring of last year. See above.
And when you drill even deeper, the most popular inbound destination -- at least according to Apartment List's search data -- seems to be Honolulu. In the second half of 2020, about 26.8% of users searching in Honolulu from somewhere else in the US were looking for a short-term lease. This is compared to 14.9% during the same time period in 2019. Intuitively this makes sense to me. If you're in lockdown and working from home, why the hell not do it from Hawaii? We've all have this same thought.
Apartment List goes on to speculate that this short-term rental spike could be an indication that the inbound and outbound flows we're seeing right now with certain cities may not be all that permanent. People are simply optimizing for the current environment. Though this data is representative of intent, rather than of leases consummated. Either way, that would be my guess. But who knows. Maybe some people will discover that surfing in the morning and working from the beach is a pretty enjoyable way to live.

Yesterday Urbanation released its Q2-2018 rental report for the Greater Toronto Area. It tracks both purpose-built rentals and condominium rentals, the latter being condominium units that are listed for rent on MLS. The average condo rent, for all unit types across the GTA, is up 11.2% year-over-year to a face rent of $2,302 per month.
Here is a chart from the Globe and Mail:

The former City of Toronto, which includes downtown, is actually up 13.5%:


Apartment List's quarterly Renter Migration Report (Q4 2020) offers up some interesting insights into what may be playing out in the apartment sector right now. The most striking takeaway seems to be the surge in people looking for short-term rentals (leases of six months or less). And while the data has historically shown that those looking to move to a new metro are more likely to be looking for a short-term rental compared to those searching within their current metro, that spread really widened starting in the spring of last year. See above.
And when you drill even deeper, the most popular inbound destination -- at least according to Apartment List's search data -- seems to be Honolulu. In the second half of 2020, about 26.8% of users searching in Honolulu from somewhere else in the US were looking for a short-term lease. This is compared to 14.9% during the same time period in 2019. Intuitively this makes sense to me. If you're in lockdown and working from home, why the hell not do it from Hawaii? We've all have this same thought.
Apartment List goes on to speculate that this short-term rental spike could be an indication that the inbound and outbound flows we're seeing right now with certain cities may not be all that permanent. People are simply optimizing for the current environment. Though this data is representative of intent, rather than of leases consummated. Either way, that would be my guess. But who knows. Maybe some people will discover that surfing in the morning and working from the beach is a pretty enjoyable way to live.

Yesterday Urbanation released its Q2-2018 rental report for the Greater Toronto Area. It tracks both purpose-built rentals and condominium rentals, the latter being condominium units that are listed for rent on MLS. The average condo rent, for all unit types across the GTA, is up 11.2% year-over-year to a face rent of $2,302 per month.
Here is a chart from the Globe and Mail:

The former City of Toronto, which includes downtown, is actually up 13.5%:

But here are the stats that I really wanted to draw your attention to today (figures from the Globe).
According to Urbanation, there were some 384,000 condo apartments in the Greater Toronto Area in 2017 and nearly 1/3 of them were rented out. Given that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation pegs the total number of rental apartments in the GTA at approximately 311,596, condo apartments represent about 40% of all our rental housing stock.
So condo buildings are actually doing quite a bit of heavy lifting when it comes to providing rental housing in this region.
This past week Studio Gang unveiled its first project in Los Angeles, a curvaceous apartment (300 rental units) and hotel (149 rooms) tower in Chinatown.
The developer is Paris-based Compagnie de Phalsbourg and the hotel component is expected to be operated by the European brand, MOB Hotel.
Above is the only rendering I could find. If you would like to read a bit more about the project, check out Curbed LA.
Image: Studio Gang
But here are the stats that I really wanted to draw your attention to today (figures from the Globe).
According to Urbanation, there were some 384,000 condo apartments in the Greater Toronto Area in 2017 and nearly 1/3 of them were rented out. Given that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation pegs the total number of rental apartments in the GTA at approximately 311,596, condo apartments represent about 40% of all our rental housing stock.
So condo buildings are actually doing quite a bit of heavy lifting when it comes to providing rental housing in this region.
This past week Studio Gang unveiled its first project in Los Angeles, a curvaceous apartment (300 rental units) and hotel (149 rooms) tower in Chinatown.
The developer is Paris-based Compagnie de Phalsbourg and the hotel component is expected to be operated by the European brand, MOB Hotel.
Above is the only rendering I could find. If you would like to read a bit more about the project, check out Curbed LA.
Image: Studio Gang
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog