St. Catharines Apartment Market
St. Catharines is the largest city in the Niagara Peninsula and is located at the mouth of the St Lawrence Seaway, straddling the QEW highway. The city is the heart of the Niagara economy and is growing significantly on the city’s western edge with new retail and health services facilities. The city has a population of 131,989 people and contains 7,874 apartments in approximately 446 buildings. Apartment buildings in St. Catharines are mostly small size with 360 buildings (81%) below 20 units in size, although the city does contain 19 buildings 100-200 units in size.
Vacancy Rates and Average Rents
St. Catharines has an overall vacancy rate of 4.9%, which is significantly lower than Niagara Falls, and the highest vacancies are found among bachelor apartments (5.7%). Vacancies increased from 2008 to 2009 by about 0.9%. Average rents range from $550 for bachelor apartments to $850 for 2 bedroom apartments, which are low for the province. Conversely, average rents for 3+ bedroom apartments are relatively high at $1,006. This suggests a market for larger apartments may achieve strong rents, while bachelor to 2 bedroom apartments are probably sufficient for the market.
For Investors
St. Catharines is the largest apartment market in Niagara, but like Niagara Falls offers primarily older and smaller buildings. Skyline has renovated one older high-rise into high-priced luxury rental apartments—leasing has been moderately successful, proving a market exists, but there is some question if additional product at the higher end of the rental market can be absorbed. The only new multi-unit construction in St. Catharines has been condominiums, but even these are few and far between due to a city council that is not favourable to multi-unit residential development. Investors should have good choices if they know where to look and don’t mind dealing with older properties. Fortunately most older properties are located at prime locations. Brock University, located at the southern border of the city on top of the Niagara Escarpment, is too geographically isolated to play a major role in most of the city’s rental apartment market, except in those areas right at the bottom of the Escarpment.
