Every Thursday morning, Brent Arentsen diligently grabs a copy of Pique, flips to the classifieds section, and begins calling potential landlords one-by-one from the Long Term Accommodation section. Almost always, he reaches an answering machine and leaves a message.
Each week is more discouraging though, as the list of available rental housing units in the paper slowly shrinks. And Arentsen still has not received a call back from a single landlord.
“I have been looking since I moved here, about three and a half, four weeks ago now,” said Arentsen.
“It is really hard because I am a 20-year-old male, so I look like a trouble maker. And people don’t realize that you could be a 20-year-old male, but you could have gone to school, gotten a diploma, be employed full time, and be responsible and trustworthy,” said the Ucluelet-native, who is willing to pay up to $1,000 per month for a room.
While it has always been tough to find a place in this resort town, things may be worse this winter, with rental inventory already running out before November hits.
Arentsen, who got a place immediately last winter, said that off the top of his head he knows at least 12 other people who are in the same boat as him.
“We are all doing the same thing, we are all calling. Some people are getting responses, getting messages back on their cell phones, but when it comes to actually view a place…
“One of my friends actually was able to get in contact with the landlord, but they required six months rent up front. And no one really has that kind of money,” he said.
Arentsen’s challenges in finding a place to live this fall are not unique. The demand for housing is outpacing the supply, and this week’s Pique Long Term Accommodation section had 46 postings for rent, compared to 43 people seeking accommodation.
And this trend is continued on the Whistler Housing Authority’s (WHA) website.
General manager Marla Zucht said the WHA usually has between 12 and 20 places for rent listed on the website. This month there are only two. Conversely, 67 people have posted ads seeking accommodation.
“We are definitely noticing that this year in the housing crunch there is less availability in the rental market… than we have seen in recent past years,” said Zucht, comparing this fall’s inventory levels to those of 2002.
Gord Low, owner of Mountain Country Property Management, said his company has also noticed rental inventories are running out faster this year.
“If you compare it to the fall of 2006, 2005, or even 2004, I would say we are six to eight weeks ahead of where we were those years,” he said. And he suggests two reasons for the rental housing crunch: the Olympics and two good winters back-to-back.
“If you compare to the year we had a very poor winter season, we saw a lot of employees leave town early, they left in March or the beginning of April. This year we saw the difference where they all stayed because they had such a good winter season, they had money in their pockets,” he said.
Duane Kercher, managing broker of Whistler Property Services, also said this year’s housing crunch is more acute.
“Now with the boom in construction in advance of the Olympics, the demand for accommodation has increased to the extent that the usual chronic fall housing shortage has developed into a housing crisis that surpasses anything I have witnessed since my move to Whistler in the late 1980s,” said Kercher.
“What is also unique and unprecedented is that the demand for rental housing in the spring, at the end of the winter season, is no longer low. We are now experiencing relatively strong demand for rental housing throughout the full year,” he said.
Kercher said another trend that has partly contributed to the inventory shortfall is the slow reduction in the number of older homes available for high-density rentals to younger seasonal and annual employee tenant groups.
Emily Slaco, an employee at the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort, said she spent two months looking before she found a place.
“Most of the landlords I talked to were getting like 80 calls in one day as soon as the Pique came out. They would just kind of shut their phone off and maybe call the first five people that came to them, or the first 10, or something like that,” she said.
“I think people who didn’t do that basically ended up going with people they already knew, or people that were referred by them,” she said, adding that she also eventually found a place through referral.
Slaco said during her housing-search, she was offered a converted sauna for $400, and she attended an open house so crowded that people were lined up “out the door, around the corner, and down the stairs.”
“It was really disheartening and ridiculous. We did consider leaving. The worst part was it would get down to like three people, and we would be part of the three people, and then they would give it to a couple or something. I mean, that is something completely out of your control,” she said.
Slaco added that Whistler should have a “Need to Reside” clause, similar to Banff, where homeowners would be required to live in their houses for at least six months a year.
Artensen, who has not been as lucky as Slaco in his housing search, said he thinks Whistler is doing a good job to address the issue, and the intense housing crunch is just a reality of the resort’s growing popularity.
However, he is now considering moving to Squamish or Pemberton for the snow season.
“It is frustrating, but I knew it was coming. I was not shocked. I anticipated it. I knew it was going to be struggle,” he said.
“I am lucky because I do have a vehicle, I do know people here. But it is hard to think that people are just getting off the bus this week, having never been to Whistler before. It is going to be really tough for them. It is going to be a struggle this winter. It will be interesting for sure,” he said.
