Rental rates for homes in Calgary are down by about 11 to 18 per cent according to one rental website. Mark Hawkins of RentFaster.ca told CBC News that with CMHC data showing vacancy rates in the city up to 5.3 per cent in October 2015 compared to 1.4 per cent a year earlier, renters can now expect to pay an average $1,581. National rental vacancies were 3.3 per cent in the October figures.

Free rent for a month? Calgary, Edmonton landlords try to woo renters as prices fall

As oil continues to slide, Alberta landlords are offering more and more incentives in an attempt to woo renters to their properties at the same time as rental prices are falling in the province’s two largest cities.
The number of houses, condos and apartments for rent in Calgary and Edmonton has risen sharply in 2015, while rents have fallen across each of those categories, according to data from RentFaster.ca, one of Alberta’s largest property rental websites.
Monthly rents for condos in Calgary have fallen more than 20 per cent since last year to an average of $1,716 from $2,150, RentFaster data shows.
“It’s a pretty big drop but at the same time we had four or five years of really good upticks – that’s four to eight per cent per year,” said Mark Hawkins, owner of RentFaster.ca. He added there’s a clear correlation between rental prices and oil prices in both of the province’s major cities.
In Calgary, the average rental price for either a house or an apartment is down 10 per cent over the course of 2015, while the number of available listings has spiked. The number of houses for rent in Calgary is up to 3,450 available units, a 64 per cent jump, while the number of apartments for rent is up 43 per cent, according to RentFaster.
The situation is similar in Edmonton, where the average rental price for a house has dropped eight per cent, though the number of listings is up 73 per cent. In the apartment market, the average price has fallen two per cent while the number of listings is up 26 per cent.
“I think the market has shifted from being in favour of the landlord to more of a balanced market, where the landlord and tenant are more on even footing,” said Hawkins.
Hawkins said that landlords are increasingly advertising incentives to tenants — such as a month of free rent on a 12-month lease — and that tenants are no longer in a rush to sign leases. “In general terms, we’ve regressed to 2012, 2013 prices,” Hawkins said
The market for fully-furnished condos, popular with oil and gas consultants who move to Calgary on short-term assignments, has been particularly hard hit as the oil price rout has continued.
The West Texas Intermediate oil price continued to fall Tuesday, dipping briefly below US$37.
Mainstreet Equities Corp., one of the largest residential landlords in Alberta, with apartment properties in British Columbia and Saskatchewan as well, said vacancy rates in the province are now comparable with other markets across the country.
The downturn has caused vacancy rates in Calgary to climb to about 4.5 per cent, while Edmonton’s residential vacancy rate is five per cent.
“We’ve seen the effects of the recession affect our top-line revenue and we’ve seen the effects of the recession affect our vacancy rate,” president and CEO Bob Dhillon said, adding that high-salaried oil and gas workers are not his main clients. He said the average monthly rent across Mainstreet’s properties is $1,000.
By comparison, the average monthly rental price across all apartments in Calgary has fallen to $1,322 today from $1,478 last year, according to RentFaster.
“The effect of a higher vacancy rates and possible drop in rents is temporary,” Dhillon said of the apartment market, adding there is a lack of purpose-built apartment buildings in both Calgary and Edmonton.
 
source: http://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/market-update/calgary-rental-rates-fall-as-vacancies-increase-201578.aspx and http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/free-rent-for-a-month-calgary-edmonton-landlords-try-to-woo-renters-as-prices-fall