David AizikovFebruary 2, 2022 at 12:00 AM4 min read

Multifamily Amenities: How Welcoming Pets Can Improve Your Bottom Line

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Introduction

This report will be the first in a series which intends to quantify the premiums associated with specific amenities offered by various rental properties in major markets across Canada. These figures aim to provide additional information to developers and real estate professionals who want to better understand the minute variations in rental rates and what premiums they can potentially expect to achieve in their new construction properties, relative to the market rents typically provided within their feasibility studies.

The market surveys included within this report represent current market rents achieved by both purpose-built rental properties, and professionally managed secondary market condominium rental listings on Rentals.ca. The data includes only multifamily properties and has excluded low-rise single family homes. Data was selected using best practices to remove potential data outliers and errors which may affect results. The markets included for this report were chosen based on a substantial number of active and leased units to ensure a sufficient volume of rental rates were available for analysis. Larger sample sizes ensured that data was more closely representative of broader market conditions.

Market Summaries for Pet-Friendly Amenity Premiums:

Below are individual market summaries along with relevant statistics regarding the units analyzed for identifying potential amenity premiums. Data includes both active and leased unit data from October, through December of 2021.

Toronto
Properties Surveyed:	~550
Units Surveyed:	~1,700
% of Pet Friendly Units:	75%
Amenity Premium $:	37$
Market summary: Toronto achieved the second lowest amenity premium of markets contained within this analysis while also achieving the second highest average market rent. This suggests that there is likely to be a correlation between the overall rents and associated unit premiums achieved within a market. Higher rental rates limit unit premiums.

Ottawa
Properties Surveyed:	~200
Units Surveyed:	~700
% of Pet Friendly Units:	70%
Amenity Premium $:	99$
Market summary: Ottawa's average rental rates and the availability of pet-friendly units fall below that of Toronto's while its overall pet premium is substantially higher. This suggests that there is likely a correlation between availability and the associated premium.

Winnipeg
Properties Surveyed:	~175
Units Surveyed:	~800
% of Pet Friendly Units:	41%
Amenity Premium $:	200$
Market summary: The substantially higher pet premium suggests that there may be a correlation between the availability of pet-friendly units, and the premium achieved by these units. Scarcity demands a premium.

Calgary
Properties Surveyed:	~180
Units Surveyed:	~600
% of Pet Friendly Units:	78%
Amenity Premium $:	52$
Market summary: Calgary offers the highest proportion of pet-friendly units amongst the included markets while achieving a strong premium. This indicates that regardless of the supply, the presence of specific differentiators is likely to enable specific properties to achieve premiums over local competitors.

Vancouver
Properties Surveyed:	~210
Units Surveyed:	~770
% of Pet Friendly Units:	54%
Amenity Premium $:	31$
Market summary: Vancouver much like Winnipeg offers fewer pet-friendly units however, unlike Winnipeg the achievable premium is substantially lower. This is likely related to the higher average monthly rents achieved within this market; suggesting that higher base rents limit the ceiling of associated unit premiums.

In addition, we have included an aggregated analysis of 15 major markets across Canada which indicated that properties that are pet-friendly will on average achieve approximately $35 higher in monthly rents than their non pet-friendly comparables. This suggests that although variations can exist within markets in relation to what renters are willing to pay for the privilege of having pets within their units, the phenomenon of pet premiums remains true across much of the country and is likely to apply to outlying secondary and tertiary markets as well.

Analyzed markets include the following:

(Brampton, Burnaby, Calgary, Dartmouth, Edmonton, Guelph, Halifax, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.)

Notes and considerations for pet-friendly amenities

The listings included within the analysis represent the overall market of available units at the time of writing this report on Retails.ca. We should note that the variations in the percentage of pet-friendly units was a result of the availability of unit data. This suggests that certain markets are likely to be substantially more welcoming of pets whether due to a culture of pet ownership or because it has become common practice.

A general rule of thumb regarding pet-friendly unit premiums is that markets which contain a smaller percentage of pet-friendly units will typically achieve higher unit premiums. This is likely because the scarcity of these units drives up local renters' willingness to pay a premium. There are however exceptions to this rule, namely that markets with higher base rents will typically experience a shrinkage in associated unit premiums regardless of the availability of a specific amenity. This suggests that markets which experience significant rent growth are likely to achieve lower unit premiums.

Disclaimer:

This data is not intended for rent setting purposes within new construction, as it does not take in account age or location of product. Readers should complete their own review and analysis prior to rent setting or decision making as Rentsync does not provide any warranties or guarantees in regards to the validity of this data.

If you are interested in this data, or have questions regarding pricing unit premiums, you can book a consultation with us here and we would be happy to assist you in further refining your rent roll and maximizing your rent rates.