Sudbury rental housing market competition heats up

Time is running out for students who are on the hunt for a place to stay during the upcoming school year.

And that means competition is heating up in Sudbury's rental market.

The president of the Sudbury Real Estate Board said the city's downtown core and South end see the highest demand for student housing — and that can make finding a rental property in those areas challenging.

“Sudbury's fortunate enough to have three post-secondary [institutions], which really plays a great part in our city,” David Kurt said.

“But that does put a lot of stress on our rental housing market.”

Kurt's advice for students is to talk to landlords or property management companies.

“They're going to have their ear to the system for the rental market.”

He also said looking over Kijiji ads can be helpful.

So far, Natalie Novak hasn’t had any luck in her search for an all-inclusive, one bedroom apartment in Sudbury.

“You can go into something and they're charging you … let's say $700, but you're in an outdated apartment."

Novak, who is entering her fourth year at Laurentian University, said most of the apartments she's seen are too expensive for just one person.      

"It's hard to find a happy medium."

Kurt said renters shouldn’t be afraid to negotiate monthly rents.