Population and Housing

[Markster]

It's time again, for the quarterly "oh no there's too much housing" article!


Waterloo facing sizable glut of student housing
http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6342...t-housing/

WATERLOO — The oversupply of student housing in this city is far worse than previously thought, says an expert who tracks the investment real estate market.

One of the new student apartment buildings in the university town already is in power of sale proceedings, Karl Innanen, managing director of the Waterloo Region office of Colliers International, said Wednesday.

Currently, there is an oversupply of nearly 1,200 beds, but when new developments that are in the works are included, the surplus increases to 8,321 beds, Innanen said during the commercial real estate firm's presentation of its annual report on market trends.

Innanen said the Colliers analysis does not take into account increases in the student population because the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College are forecasting low single-digit growth in enrolment.

That rate of increase won't be nearly enough to absorb the extra beds, he said.

There are 41,440 university and college students in Waterloo, Colliers said. When you take away students who commute to campuses, that number drops to 31,429. The Waterloo skyline is dotted with construction cranes for student apartment buildings. When those buildings are completed, the supply of beds will overshoot the market by 20 per cent, said Innanen.

"I think the student market was overbuilt because people got overzealous and there was no discipline," he said in an interview. "Unfortunately, it was a rampant supply of brand new, nice buildings."

How unfortunate.

More in the article.