According to Anne-Marie Lurie, chief economist for the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB), a spate of new construction and development in Calgary is leading to lower prices for apartments and condos in the city.
“We’re seeing a lot of rental construction happen across the city,” Lurie said. “You know, a lot (of) new developments.”
With 1,774 units available in March, according to CREB’s latest stats on housing starts, the inventory is just shy of the record high reported during the financial crisis of 2008.
While the supply is up, the cost of purchasing a condo is down according to the latest numbers from the Calgary Real Estate Board.
The average price of $300,300 in March is about nine per cent less than the same month last year.
“In terms of how the market is shifting is we’re really seeing additional supply choice, relative to the demand,” said Lurie. “So softer conditions for sure for that apartment condo style product. That’s something that we’ve been seeing for several months (and it’s) just really persisting into spring.”
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The increased supply and lower prices also mean its a good time to buy a condo, according to Calgary realtor Ariel Buenaventura of ReMax First.
“One hundred per cent. It’s definitely a buyer’s market for condos. I’d say a pretty solid strategy would be to sit and watch the market as it declines in prices, but there comes a point where the property’s price is so attractive that another person’s going to see that and snap it up,” said Buenaventura
“So there’s kind of this balancing act that you have to say, OK, this is probably the bottom. We got to buy this thing or else somebody else will.”
Buenaventura estimates many condos that were on the market for 30 days or less last year are on the market for double or triple that this year before being sold.
The lower cost of purchasing a condo, claims Buenaventura, is also turning many prospective buyers into renters.
“Rental rates right now are falling because there’s so much inventory coming online. There’s a lot of purpose-built rentals,” said Buenaventura.
“Almost every single crane that you see downtown, those are building rentals, there’s office conversions happening, and because of that you’ve got a more affordable rent.”
While overall the supply of condos is up and prices are down in Calgary, CREB claims some areas of the city are also more affected than others.
“City Center hasn’t seen as much of an adjustment as opposed to the northeast,” or the southeast, said Lurie.
“Higher levels of price adjustment is either because there’s a lot of supply in those areas where there’s lots of new construction and a lot of new developments happening — so in the northeast all the way down into that southeast — as opposed to other areas (where) we’re just seeing some modest adjustments, like the northwest, city center and to a lesser extent some of the south” added Lurie.
The buyers market for condos is forecast to continue for the rest of this year and into 2027.
here is why: “The federal government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has committed hundreds of millions in funding to Alberta for housing, highlighted by a
$175 million agreement with Edmonton in February 2024 to accelerate construction of 5,200+ homes. Other key investments include over $172 million for 4,257 affordable homes and $203 million in joint funding for provincial housing projects.” No builders profit needed when taxpayers money is being used to build homes and builders get to take all the profits.
Stands to reason since the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT finally learned their lesson on what happens in a country when they allow MASS IMMIGRATION to a country that is NOT READY FOR IT in any way. Liberals destroyed our health care and education system by taking away financial aid to help REBUILD our health care and education systems BUT, giving millions of dollars to the housing market so BUILDERS COULD US OUR TAX DOLLARS instead of their own profits to build homes has now allowed our markets to start balancing out once again. Hmmmm…lol..make sense?
Really? How is real estate like in the Capital City??
This is how you solve the housing crisis. Not with more government programs, but by simply unleash private enterprise. Major projects like condos can take 10 years, or more, from planning to completion. We are seeing the results of Nenshi opening zoning, and streamlining permitting, when he was mayor. He didn’t create new programs, or hire more bureacrats. He simply got government out of the way of private industry.
I would sooner trust a rattlesnake than a realtor.
Because those that can afford to leave the country are. The only way to housing affordability is to scrap all the useless taxes inflicted on Canadians by the LPC. Carbon taxes, plastic taxes, packaging taxes…etc.
housing prices still need to come down. With our economy the way it is buying a home is still out of reach for many. Food and energy costs are insane.