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Close to 40 per cent of Calgary’s available rental listings are unoccupied, according to a local property management company which says the weak market has become a major source of financial stress for small, private landlords.

Hope Street Real Estate Corporation, which directly manages the tenancies of 3,600 landlords in Alberta, released a report this week based on data from its own operations as well as Internet listing sites such as Kijiji and RentFaster. According to its report, 37 per cent of the advertised rental properties in Calgary do not currently have a tenant living in them, and the average property spends 59 days on the market before being rented.

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There are 8,102 rental properties currently advertised for rent in Calgary, it said, up from 5,233 one year ago and 2,377 in the fall of 2011. The average rental list price is $1,467 per month.

“I have never seen it this grim before,” said Shamon Kureshi, president and CEO of Hope Street Real Estate Corporation. “I have never seen this level of difficulty for landlords trying to find a tenant.”