It’s no secret that the housing market has been very busy around Cochrane for over a year, but what does that mean for the rental market? 

Keith Rowe, owner of Rent My Home Property Management says it’s a tough time to find a rental here in town.

“It's absolutely insane. Everywhere else in the world, people choose to live there because of work, family, or school. But in Cochrane, people choose to live here no matter what. So it doesn't matter if the economy or the oil is up or down, it doesn't matter who's in government, none of this stuff matters, people still move to Cochrane.”

“You've got this other situation where well over 100 rental properties have sold in the last six months.”

“There have been a whole bunch of accidental landlords. starting in 2015 and going into 2020, people would call us up and say, I would like you to rent my home for a year or a couple of years until the market gets good and so they didn't want to be landlords, but they were just going to take way too much of a hit on their house. But with the sale spike this spring, they decided to sell their place this year.”

“Eight out of 10 people that I talk to during walk-throughs right now say they are selling my house, I have to find a new place to live. The other two out of 10 say, I'm moving from out of town because, as I said, people choose Cochrane.

He says that to find a house for rent in Cochrane, you need to have a plan in place.

“The first thing is you have to come here. You can't be sitting in your house in Ontario and say yeah I'd like to rent the place sight unseen, having not met the person because there's a lineup of anywhere from five to 15 people that are willing to come and see it. At least set up a virtual walk-through.”

“You have to jump on it. Gone are the days when you can go home and think about it and decide, well, is this the right thing for me and maybe I fill in the application and get back to them in a couple of days. No, you have to show up for the appointment on time, and you have to take the application, and you have to have the application in there in the landlord's hands that day. Otherwise poof it's gone.”