Monday, August 27, 2007

Student Hunt in Victoria

Now before you drivers get too excited, we're not inventing a new game involving fast moving cars and a certain circular shaped traffic route with plenty of zebra-striped "target rich environments" on campus. Rather we're simply pointing out that students too are feeling the house hunting blues.

Maybe we'll start seeing ads on Craigslist like this:
FOR RENT: first time landlords, previously university students themselves, seek four international, female, quiet, studious, master's students to share one room with outhouse in back forty of scenic, serene, private, quiet, inner-city, farm-like, family home off West Saanich. Just 20 kilometres from campus, this unique opportunity provides all the benefits of close proximity to campus, yet 2 one-hour bus rides to school each day each way, will make you feel like you did when you spent the summer hopping trains all day while backpacking through Europe. No phone, no cable, no internet, no pets, no parties, no running water, no heat, no electricity included (or available). $2500 per month. ACT QUICKLY, this unit never lasts long. 420 Friendly.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is off the topic but ...

I was watching a Victoria channel and there was an ad for DHL real estate agents. "Whether the market is Hot or Not it is important to use a good agent blah, blah blah". Anyway, about a year ago or more you had that Darren Day creep going on how the market is hot and the Americans all want to live in our beautiful island blah, blah, blah.

I just think it was interesting as the ads for RE agents were always pumping the hot market.

Anonymous said...

i'm looking for a place for a friend who is moving to town to go to uvic right now. she wants a nice, safe one bedroom on a bus route to uvic for under $700 and i absolutely cannot find one. the rental market is crazy right now.

Anonymous said...

It's crazy at this time every year. That's nothing new.

Anonymous said...

Indeed, you just have to look outside the peak times. I used to rent a great 1-bed suite across the street from the entrance to Ring Road for $625. This was a few years ago, but I have seen similar deals this year.

Anonymous said...

I have no doubt that August/September is a difficult time to find a place to rent. However, this little dazzler drew my attention...there are actually 160 fewer first year students enrolled at UVic year than last year. That's a 5% decline over last year.

There's no link to the article (damn you canada.com) but the story is in the Nanaimo Daily News and is penned by Derek Spalding. (August 28, 2007)

Fewer students go to Mal-U

By Derek Spalding

While the University of British Columbia will have an increase in enrolment this fall, some post-secondary schools on Vancouver Island are seeing fewer students come through the doors.

In Nanaimo, registration for vocational courses remains strong at Malaspina University-College, but academic enrolment dropped less than 1%.

The numbers were worse for the University of Victoria, as first-year undergraduate registration sat at 2,956, down 5% from 3,124 at this time in 2006.

Of course, there is no information provide on the difference in total enrollment (after all, aren't students taking longer to complete their degrees), but it is interesting that:
1) That the TC's pump job on the "back to school crunch" failed to note there may be actually fewer students searching for apartments, and
2) You have to go to a Nanaimo paper to find this information.