Key takeaways:
- Inadequate supply leaving tenants, property managers discouraged.
- Georgianne Penney explored high and low for a suitable residence in the St. John’s area.
- Others reached by the media state the region’s rental supply has dried up in the previous two years.
Rental supplies in St. John’s have dried up:
Georgianne Penney was frantic.
The 27-year-old from Mount Pearl had been peeking for a flat for months, exploring ads for residences across metro St. John’s. She’d reached up to property managers and cast a vast net at her friends.
But every time somebody replied to her, they told her the exact thing.
Sorry, they’d tell. We’ve had a lot of answers and went with somebody else.
“I hoped it to be like it used to be, where you’d see a bunch of places listed.… It would take maybe a month, two tops, and you’d have a residence, assured,” she stated. Source – cbc.ca
Read more: Roads open after blizzard forces shutdowns through western Newfoundland and into Labrador
“It was not that.” Source – cbc.ca
Penney, left on the verge of homelessness and jumping between couches, posted her ad online, imploring for assistance. The ad finally worked, landing Penney a pet-friendly basement unit in Paradise — almost a full year after she began her quest.
“I lucked into this flat by the skin of my teeth,” Penney stated gravely. Source – cbc.ca
According to two property management firms run by the media, the rental market in Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital city has been warming up since 2020.
For tenants like Penney, it’s got a boiling point — and owners, too, have seen.
