Saskatchewan’s low housing inventory continues to challenge the real estate industry, and the head of the province’s realtors association fears it’s the new normal. “Our inventory levels are not where they should be. And unfortunately, I think it’s normalized through the years, because we’ve been here for so long,” Saskatchewan Realtors Association CEO Chris Guérette said. “After a period of five years, people sort of assume that that’s how the market in Saskatchewan is — but it’s not. That’s not a normal market.” In Saskatoon, there are currently more realtors selling homes than there are homes available on the market. At the end of November, there were 591 available properties, compared to 842 realtors working in the city. “People say, ‘Oh, there’s too many realtors!’ It’s not the case,” Guérette said. “We in Saskatchewan have the lowest amount of realtors per population of all provinces in the country, so we have a very resilient market of professionals who can service the market. It just explains how dire that situation is needing more inventory in the market.” The realtors association was holding its annual State of Real Estate Conference at Prairieland Park on Tuesday. The event allows realtors to sharpen their skills, hear presentations from industry leaders, network, and to hear from policy makers in the room. Premier Scott Moe began the day with a keynote address, where he touched on the province’s efforts to build more housing to meet the demand, and boost the real estate industry. “Our housing starts in Saskatchewan have increased 71 per cent year over year,” Moe said. “That’s not an anomaly, we are seeing that generally, month over month.” Moe said much of those housing starts have been in the province’s large urban centres, but not exclusively in those areas. Moe also said he plans to keep increasing Saskatchewan’s housing supply across the continuum by encouraging investment, rather than enacting policies like rent control, which is something the Saskatchewan NDP has pushed for recently. During his address, he asked realtors to use their voice and talk to each other to help bolster the industry or appeal to policy makers. “Government certainly shouldn’t get in the way of hindering investment,” Moe said. In a news release, the NDP pointed to rent control’s ability to help with affordability. According to a new report from Rentals.ca, rent is up 3.9 per cent in Saskatchewan — the highest average increase in the country for December. Rents decreased in many other provinces. “These big corporate landlords are making record profits, and bragging about it, and Scott Moe is still coming to their defense. We need rent control to help make life more affordable for Saskatchewan people,” NDP leader Carla Beck said in the release. Guérette says fatigue among homebuyers and realtors is apparent right now. Saskatchewan’s housing market is known as being one of the most affordable markets in the industry, but if it’s not easy to enter, with low inventory driving costs higher, frustration begins to mount. Although housing starts and build permits are moving through to construction quickly, Guérette warns it takes time to build homes, and easing affordability concerns for homebuyers and inventory concerns for realtors will take patience. “What I like to see is the alignment between our municipalities and our provincial government so that we can work together for those solutions,” she said.
