There has been a bit of controversy about apartments in Calgary being converted to condos. The controversy comes with the eviction of tenants from lower cost rental units to make way for the conversions. Typically tenants are supposed to be given a 6-month eviction notice for a condo conversion, however some landlords are getting around this with what they are calling Economic Evictions (which I will write more about later).

In a city where there has been virtually zero rental units built for almost a decade these types of conversions from apartments to condos are having a very negative effect on the lower to middle range of the rental market. With a rental vacancy rate around 1% the condo conversions, combined with the lack of affordable housing and new rental units being constructed, is making Calgary a very inhospitable place for lower income singles and families.

Although Townsville is not experiencing anything like this at the moment, I wonder if there are similar things happening in larger Australian cities where the market for condos and apartments is tighter?