Since the Western University 2014 rental season is officially upon us, I would like to help Western University students find a rental home, student accommodation, or an apartment in London, Ontario for the upcoming year. Below is a short list of where you need to go to find a student rental home, and why you need to use the service.

1.       Ask Your Friends For Their House If You Like It

I see this happening with a lot of Western University students recently. If you know someone and their entire group is moving out of the house, and you have a group who really wants the house, ask your friends for the Landlord’s phone number. In this scenario, you will have already seen the house, knows who lives there and the ins and outs of the house, and your friends who live there will be able to vouch for the Landlord.

2.       Western University (UWO) Off Campus Housing

Western University Off Campus Housing has received a much needed facelift recently, and their ads are usually of higher quality because each Landlord/business must pay $10 to post an ad. This service filters out much of the noise available on other services and boils it down to owners looking to rent specifically to Western University ungraduated, international, or graduate students. The only issues with UWO Off Campus Housing is the fact that there are only 3 pictures allowed to be uploaded (and pictures can be deceiving), no videos are allowed to be posted, and the description of the properties are limited. However, this is still a great resource to start looking for a property. 

3.       Kijiji – London, Ontario – House Rental / Room Rental Ads

If you are a Western University student looking for a rental home or student accommodation on Kijiji, please be careful. Kijiji has some great built in features like the highly specialized search filters (price/bedrooms/location/keyword/etc.), allows 10 pictures and a video link, as well as a generous section to properly detail your ad. Also, since Kijiji is the most popular platform every landlord posts their ads on this service as well as it is free. Here is what you need to watch out for on Kijiji:

-          Semi – Completed Ads: If the ad doesn’t have many pictures, or doesn’t have a detailed description of the property, bedrooms, prices, when the lease starts, what is included, etc. be very hesitant. 

-          Scams: There are several scams out there where (usually foreign and fake) people try to get you to email money transfer them a deposit without viewing the property and then not hearing from them again. Keep a close eye on anything suspicious. 

-          Noise: On Kijiji there is a lot of noise. Right now, there are over 1400 house rental ads in London, Ontario. Hundreds of those ads have expired, already are rented out, have an unresponsive landlord who won’t respond to emails, and some ads are reposted dozens of times. If you can filter out the noise on Kijiji, you will be able to set up showings at several houses. 

4.       Student Rental Companies That Rent Homes for Student Accommodation to Western Students (i.e. corerentals.ca)

There are about a handful of companies that rent homes, student accommodation, and apartments in London to students from Western University (and Fanshawe College). We don’t want to give them free advertising on this site, but you have seen the blue signs, green signs, purple signs, yellow signs, etc. all over the Western University bubble. These companies use the listing services above to help market their properties, but ultimately they have the contracts with owners to rent them out to students. Here is a shameless plug for our service at Core Property Rentals and Management, where we specialize in renting to Western University (UWO) students looking for homes for rent, student accommodation and rental homes in London, Ontario. We have our own properties and can show you any property that is available on this wensite.

Western University (and by extension Brescia, King’s and Huron) have and will in the future keep building new buildings and renovating older buildings. This will not change. There are two types of logic here from Landlords:



1.       I don’t like Western building more student housing because it will be harder for me to rent out

2.       I live Western building more because they will bring more students to the city, and by extension I will rent my house out

If you fall in logic #1 you will have a hard time, because Western is not going anywhere. The reason why Landlords in London, Ontario rent to students around the campus is because of Western and its reputation.

 Here is a little update on Western’s plans for building and renovating their students housing:

-          In September 2013, Ontario Hall residence added 600 more beds. September 2014 400 more beds will be added. This is 1000 beds total.

-          In September 2013, Brescia College added 300 beds.

-          Total beds added as of September 2014: 1300

-          Delaware Hall will be closed from September 2014 to September 2015 for upgrades, which provides 450 beds

-          First year enrollment at Western university has increased from 4350 to 4900 in the last few years.

-          This does not include the focus on international students, where Western does not provide any statistics.

-          Total Extra Beds Needed as of September 2014: 1000 (and this is not including official statistics on the push for international students.

So as you can see here, Western (and myself) suggest that there will not be any ripple effects into the local market. Although there are private buildings going up, Western is the recruiting machine that brings the students to the city and keeps them here for a few years. For this, all Landlords should be grateful. If Landlords subscribe to the logic of Western is always building to suck up the entire student rental market, I don’t believe that and the statistics show this. Western is building for its needs and after first year Landlords should be able to find a group of tenants and hold onto them for a few years.

Here are a few quick statistics from Western Off Campus Housing:

2013 AVERAGE RENTAL PRICES

Average rental prices, as of May 2013, based on the Off-Campus Housing listings:

Bachelor Apartment $550 (inclusive)

One-bedroom Apartment $699 + utilities

Two-bedroom Apartment $830 + utilities

Three-bedroom Apartment $1284 + utilities

Room $434 inclusive

Share House/Apt. $443/489 + utilities

A lot of these numbers are derived from Western’s Off Campus Housing Website prices which are not exactly accurate because some of the houses don’t rent, and some of the houses rent for a negotiated price. However, I do believe that these numbers are roughly what Landlord’s should be looking for in regards to rent for this year depending on their property, bedrooms, condition, location, etc.

Landlords have emerged from London, Ontario and from larger cities such as Toronto to invest in student rental housing at Western University. For some local Landlord’s, it’s a buy and hold strategy: hold on to the property, make sure it’s updated frequently, always rented, and one day the house will be paid off. Out of town Landlords usually get involved via their child who attends UWO, and buys a house for their friends to live in for a few years and then turns around and sells it after a few years for a profit. 

                 Traction at UWO Western University Rental Market

The single bedroom, apartments, 3 bedroom, 4 and even 6 bedroom units have been renting very quickly and easily at Western this year. The five bedroom student rental properties at Western have seen a dip this year in renting. They are more difficult to rent, and they are not fetching the prices they were in 2008-2009. Landlords and investors should be aware of this when buying and renting properties. The reason for this has been less movement among current students living in 5 bedroom properties, the location of these properties, and since they have been rented for 3 or 4 years, these units need to be updated on the inside. These factors have led to the decline in these units renting out, and not necessarily the new development found around the University. 

        How Do I Make Sure My Student Rental is Always Rented?

Landlords need to continuously update, upgrade, and add services to their student rental properties that create a great property, achieves top dollar rent from prospective student tenants, and attracts good tenants to avoid such things as damage in your UWO Western student rental property. Using arental service that specializes and student rental properties at Western University will also help you to achieve your goal.