The Saskatoon Apartment Operating Cost Study was started in 1999 as a service to our clients and to provide property managers, owners, the mortgage industry and our firm a base for comparison when analyzing apartment operating statements.

The complete report is available at a cost of $50.00 plus GST by contacting Brunsdon Junor Johnson Appraisals for further information.

This report is based on the 2006 year-end operating statements on 81 apartment blocks within the City of Saskatoon. The survey covers 2,303 suites (9,182 rooms) in apartment buildings ranging in size from 8 to 192 units. All analysis was done on a per room as well as a per suite basis and was further analyzed by building size and by CMHC Zone. Discussion is made as to the range, average costs, and trends from last year, that were found under the categories shown below.

The city-wide average annual cost breakdown is as follows:

This information enables us to provide more accurate and supportable appraisals on multi-family dwellings. Over the longer term, the data will assist in identifying cost trends.

The trends in this sampling compared to last year include a continued small decrease in the tax average per suite and another small decrease in natural gas costs. The repairs and maintenance average showed an increase in 2 zones and decreases in 5 zones. Advertising cost averages were up down 10%.

Significant changes over the past five years include the taxes per suite average decreasing by 25%, advertising increasing by 50%, natural gas up by 40% and insurance costs about doubling. The maintenance and repair category remains at around 25% of the total expenses. The total expenses average is up by around 10% from 5 years ago.

Twenty-eight of the responses we received (1,173 suites) showed the actual annual amount of vacancy and bad debt on their statements. The statements also reflected a decrease in overall vacancy. There were 64% that showed vacancy and bad debt at levels of 3% or less, 25% were in the 4% to 9% range and 11% were over 9% vacant through the year. Sorting the vacancies by size or age of the buildings resulted in little effect on the averages of the vacancies.

Sorting by zone however showed the average vacancy in Zone 6 at 13%, Zone 7 at 10% , Zone 1 at 5%, Zone 5 at 4%, Zone 2 at 2%, and Zone 3 and Zone 4 at 1%.