Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust has expanded its British Columbia portfolio with an $18.1-million purchase of properties in Victoria and the Vancouver suburb, Langley. The three low-rise buildings comprise 140 units.

“British Columbia remains one of Canada’s strongest rental markets, and we are pleased to be enhancing our presence and building our critical mass in the region with these accretive acquisitions,” says CAPREIT’s president and CEO, Thomas Schwartz.

The two-storey 32-unit Victoria property is strategically located near the downtown and the University of Victoria, and is currently 88 per cent occupied. Two three-storey buildings in Langley each boast 54 units and are now 93 per cent occupied.

Victoria’s rental vacancy rate, pegged at 1.2 per cent in Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s spring 2015 rental market report, is now the tightest of the province’s seven surveyed markets. Greater Vancouver’s 1.4 per cent vacancy rate is also lower than the province-wide average of 1.8 per cent.