With the population continuing to grow rapidly throughout the Pembina Valley, multi-family housing is in hot demand, and in many areas, there's a shortage.
Dave Kasdorf is a broker and the managing partner at Choice Realty based in Winkler
Kasdorf says demand has been strong due to the strong economy in the Pembina Valley and the arrival of immigrants. He adds there's a wide range of the population looking to get into multi-family units.
"The immigrants that are coming, they're often renting a little bit longer," said Kasdorf. "As well as our first-time homebuyers. We're finding maybe they're renting a little bit longer before they buy their first time home." Kasdorf says that's because they either need to save for a down payment or because the price to buy a home is a little higher than what they're used to paying.
The minimum down payment for a first-time home buyer is 5 percent of the purchase price of the house.
"With a few of the developments that will be announced shortly, we expect new inventory in the market, not only for the rental market but also for the first-time home buyer, which will include condos and some apartment buildings. So we do see our developers responding to the market need. Unfortunately, some of the response time takes a little longer to get permits and get approvals, and so forth. But with the economy as strong as it is in the Pembina Valley, we're excited for some of these new developments to be announced."
Kasdorf said there will be a couple of larger projects announced for Winkler in the next number of months, as well as some smaller projects, along with the announcements of multi-family construction in Morden and Altona as well.
Not only has the strength of the Pembina Valley's economy prevailed despite many challenges over the past number of years, but it has also continued to grow. Kasdorf says in his line of work, that is partly evidenced by the number of inquiries they've received by national chains.
"We've had a large number of commercial inquiries and commercial inquiries from national franchises and different companies looking to come to the area to open up either retail or restaurants and so forth. And they're quite simply looking at the economic data of the area, and it's growing, and that's what attracts."
Kasdorf says the number of inquiries they've received from national chains in the last 1 to 2 years, is the most they've ever had.
- with files from Chris Sumner -