Matt Lapierre (Darren Brown, OBJ)

At four per cent, Ottawa's vacancy rate for rental apartments is at its highest point since the 1970s and landlords are resorting to some desperate measures to fill their properties.

One local entrepreneur is insistent that tenants are out there, it's just a matter of giving them a resource to find their ideal abode.

Matt Lapierre, who recently launched the web site www.rentaldoctor.ca, has tailored the online destination to suit landlords who own relatively few rental properties.

The current vacancy rate of four per cent means that for every one hundred apartments, four are empty, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The CMHC also reports the average rental rate for a two-bedroom apartment is $940 per month.

"We want to open this site up to small Ottawa landlords," says Mr. Lapierre, who is president of LPMG Property Management, a local residential real estate investment firm.

"There are still lots of tenants out there, but it's difficult to find them by just putting an ad in the paper. Who is hurting and how this is really affecting the market is those small landlords who have two or three buildings and they have a family. They're probably very good landlords, but they're busy and they don't have a lot of time."

The goal of rentaldoctor.com is to provide these landlords with a cost effective and efficient resource to market their properties, says Mr. Lapierre. While he acknowledges there are similar sites out there, he says that rentaldoctor.com is different because it isn't a listing agent and it's restricted to local properties.

It is also not a search engine, he says, adding that he recently tried to find an Ottawa apartment through a test run on a major search engine. "It took me half an hour," he says. "This site will only list Ottawa apartments."

From the landlord's perspective, he or she pays $99 to list their property for 30 days. For this fee, it is listed on the site and is searchable based on specific criteria.

When a potential tenant visits the site, they are asked to enter the criteria for the kind of apartment they are searching for, including location, number of bedrooms and cost.

Once a tenant indicates an interest in an apartment, Mr. Lapierre will contact the landlord either by phone or email to arrange a showing.

The main challenge in renting an apartment, says Mr. Lapierre, is simply catching the attention of a potential tenant, especially with such a high vacancy rate. In such a competitive market, landlords are also competing with bigger firms that are able to entice renters with signing bonuses or even trips. Once the tenant visits the apartment, the most significant challenge has been overcome, Mr. Lapierre says. "The success rate after a showing is very, very high."

The high vacancy rate isn't the only factor upping the competition for tenants. Low mortgage rates are prompting potential clients to purchase a home or condo instead of renting.

As a result, many of the high-end apartments remain vacant, Mr. Lapierre says. "We've lost tenants because they've bought condos."

Mr. Lapierre, 25, intends to achieve high visibility for the website through newspapers, signage, a presence at events and networking. In its first four days of operation, the site garnered about 1,000 hits.

John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlords' Association, is not familiar with Mr. Lapierre's web site but says it as become a competitive market in which landlords are resorting to many measures to fill their buildings.

"It is a tough market for landlords," he says, adding that many are once again investing in their buildings, including everything from better heating and cooling systems, to stonemasonry work and cosmetic improvements.

He added that more landlords are also turning to the web to market their properties.

By Kate Chappell

Special to the Ottawa Business Journal