An NPREIT joint: Fort Gary Apartments
It’s a sweet deal that Northern Property REIT has negotiated with the territorial government.
Under the agreement, the GNWT will pay $1.6 million this year to rent 75 apartments, most of them in Yellowknife, for families on the waiting list for public housing.
The territory’s largest landlord, NPREIT complained last year that two-thirds of its public assistance tenants in Yellowknife were behind in their rent, and that these arrears had cost the company $200,000.
According to its most recent financial statement, NPREIT posted a vacancy rate of 10 to 14 percent on the 1,060 apartments it owns in Yellowknife and rents for an average of $1,645 a month.
The deal will halve NPREIT’s vacancy rate, dump the arrears problem in the lap of the NWT Housing Corp., and prop up sky-high rents that are a major challenge to government efforts to attract new residents.
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