Home building in Calgary is on fire!
When it comes to the construction of new housing Calgary is on fire! A recent Canada Mortgage And Housing Corporation (CMHC) report found on a per capita basis, in 2023, Calgary outperformed all Canadian major cities with 12.2 starts per 1,000 people. Even more impressive - in November 2023, Calgary outperformed Vancouver on an absolute basis with 1,808 housing starts compared to 1,761 - and wasn’t far behind Toronto’s 2,304 starts. Impressive given Vancouver is twice our size and Toronto four times bigger.
In chatting with the development community, this isn’t going to be a one year, or one month abnormality. The City of Calgary is currently juggling 1,300 applications for multi-family, single/semi-detached, and secondary suites, representing 6,000+ homes and 8,055 building permits, representing 25,000+ homes ready to be built or already under construction (source: City of Calgary).
Suburban Projects
In the suburbs today there are more multi-family homes being built than single-family. Calgary’s new communities are some of the densest in North America.
Truman homes, one of Calgary’s busiest housing developers with projects in every quadrant of the city has constructed over 1000 new homes in the last 5 years in West District (there are five construction cranes operating in West District alone) and The Willows. They have plans for another 900 homes in the works along the 17th Avenue near the future LRT extension beyond the 69th Street station
Trinity Hills and Greenwich at Canada Olympic Park are quickly becoming attractive new communities with numerous housing projects with lots of amenities, including the Winsport facilities. Deveraux Developments have established themselves as mid-market apartment style rental builders in Trinity Hills, Arbour Lake West and the redevelopment of Northland Village Mall.
Jayman is rumoured to have plans to build another purpose-built mid-rise (think 15 storeys) community in Mahogany, like their very popular Westman Village, but taller.
Brookfield’s Seton is dominated by multi-family buildings with both Logel and Cedarglenn looking at very large future low rise condominium projects (think horizontal towers). These 4-6 storey wood frame condominium projects will be amongst the most affordable new products in Calgary.
Inner city also on fire
Marda Loop is booming with several new projects including the Calgary Co-op’s signature project (in partnership with Truman Homes) expected to be announced this spring. It could include about 500 new homes in multiple mid-rise buildings, anchored by Co-op grocery, liquor and cannabis stores.
Just across Crowchild Trail, Minto Communities is in the early stages of redeveloping the Viscount Bennett school site that could add 2,500 new homes.
Kensington is starting to boom again with new midrise condominium and rental projects along the LRT tracks.
The Hat on 14th is one of two residential towers on the corner of 14th St & 10th Ave SW with a new low rise on the third corner.
In the Beltline, Cidex is finishing up with its “Hat on 14th” building (230 rental units on the corner of 14th Street and 10th Ave SW) and approval was recently given for the construction of the third 42-storey tower of the iconic West Village next to Shaw Millennium Park. It includes 250+ homes, as well as 40,000 sf of commercial space which could include an urban grocery store.
Cidex has a huge multi-tower project at the old Elbow River Casino site that could add 1200+ homes which has been “on hold” for a few years. With the completion of the BMO Centre expansion and construction of the new arena about to begin, one would think an announcement to proceed will happen soon. Cidex is also involved in two of the 13 downtown “office to residential” conversions, collectively adding 1,500 new homes to downtown.
Stampede Park redevelopment could also be the catalyst for Anthem Properties’ Crosstown development on Mcleod Trail across from the Erlton Station - an 850+ home development in four towers.
A little further south is the yet-to-be approved 4,000+ home Midtown project in Fisher Park that includes a new LRT station funded by the developer, Cantana Investments.
University District is building like gangbusters with almost 1,000 new homes currently under construction. Block 15 by Gracorp Properties is its largest building to date with 303 new homes. Autumn by Homes by Avi and The Forge will collectively add 300+ new homes with retail along its main street. While Jayman just announced its Built Green certified Magna an 82 home condo project.
The old Currie Barracks is being transformed into a new inner-city neighbourhood with a diversity of housing options including this seniors’ complex.
University District, a new master-planned community next to the University of Calgary will have its own main street with a major grocery store and shops at street level.
Yes, condos are back
It is interesting to note that after years of no inner city condo construction, we are beginning to see new condo construction again.
University District’s Argyle by Homes by Avi is sold out even though still under construction. In East Village, BOSA recently completed Arris, a 41- storey, 337-home condo tower.
Truman Homes is expanding its diverse housing portfolio to include its first two highrise buildings in the Beltline - Imperia (27 storeys) and the Lincoln (30 storeys). Both are upscale towers with the former having a funky futuristic design with a mid-tower sky garden, while the latter has a more classic timeless design.
In West Hillhurst, Truman is in the middle of the construction of Frontier a 266-home building on the old Kensington Legion site. It is already sold out.
Not all of the infills are small, this project in West Hillhurst will have 250+ new homes.
Row House Infill Craze
Wander Calgary’s inner city communities and you will find numerous large signs on front lawns announcing new row housing projects. Where two detached or duplex homes used to be the norm, today inner-city home builders are building row housing with basement secondary suites that can add up to 20 new homes on just three 50-foot lots. While the height of these projects is the same as in the detached and duplex infills of the past, the lot density will be about three times what was achieved 10 years ago.
Inner-city neighbourhood bungalows are being rapidly converted to townhomes each with a secondary suite. The missing middle (smaller multi-family projects) is not missing in Calgary.
Last Word
It is also important to note that today about 40% of Calgary’s new homes are being built in established neighbourhoods. As well, multi-family homes are outpacing single-family homes across the city. Both are definite signs that Calgary is becoming a denser city in both new and established communities.
Note: An edited version of this article was published in the Calgary Herald’s New Homes + Condos section on March 2, 2024 title “Calgary home building is on fire.”