Housing Market Outlook 2026<\/a> notes.<\/p>\nPotentially, another 23,000 to 30,000 starts could come this year, it predicts.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemand has dropped off significantly for new homes,\u201d says Taylor Pardy, lead economist for the Prairies at CMHC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still seeing a pace of absorption of new homes that is fairly strong, but it\u2019s just a situation where supply is significantly outrunning demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s particularly evident among multi-family \u2014 purpose-built rental, condominium apartments and townhomes. Many of the units on the ownership side were constructed with investors in mind\u00a0 who would seek to rent them in Calgary\u2019s sizable secondary rental market. The rise in new ownership and among purpose-built rentals \u2014 often started when migration to the city was at market levels post-pandemic \u2014 is now adding supply to the market resulting in significant adjustments on the resale side, the report notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re definitely seeing more balanced conditions for resale,\u201d Pardy says. \u201cThere\u2019s more choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calgary Real Estate Board statistics from February show total resales fell about 11 per cent year over year. From February 2024, sales are now down almost 29 per cent. The largest decline has been on the apartment side of the market. Sales are down 27 per cent year over year, and off almost 46 per cent from 2024, when real estate was booming amid high migration.<\/p>\n
At the same time, inventory for all housing is up 16 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat influx of money post-COVID and record population growth were huge drivers,\u201d says Jasmine Young, vice-president of advisory at Zonda, a market data firm tracking Canada\u2019s multi-family sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertain developers were even marketing their (Calgary) projects in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young notes these were condominiums projects pitched to Ontario investors, an attractive investment premise in 2024 when vacancy was below two per cent. Today, however, vacancy is five per cent and expected to rise to more than six per cent by 2027, CMHC forecasts. Zonda statistics for Calgary\u2019s new multi-family for ownership market in the final three months of 2025 reveal rising inventory for concrete and wood frame apartments, and new townhomes. Townhome inventory is as high as wood frame inventory, it shows.<\/p>\n
Young points to demand still generating sales, but buyers are price-point conscious, running up against builders\u2019 economic constraints. Builders can only construct units at certain price levels and remain profitable, while many buyers are limited by how much they can afford to borrow.<\/p>\n
Market confidence is another issue, Young says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that they don\u2019t want to buy; it\u2019s a waiting game because people still think prices will fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
CMHC does forecast potential declines in the average price over the next three years, though it also points to scenarios where prices rise. Affordability challenges for buyers seeking single-family homes \u2014 the most in-demand homes \u2014 are likely to continue, Pardy notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see what the spring market brings, but at least up until now, the outlook is not too concerning given the economic and trade uncertainty we have seen over the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The snapshot is different for multi-family \u2014 a \u201cdifferent beast,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith slowing in population growth in 2026, we\u2019re anticipating a market low point with a lot more multi-family supply coming when demand is slower, particularly for rental.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city\u2019s once tight housing market conditions have slackened considerably with no segment of the market more affected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48,11196,209842,209841,209840,209843],"class_list":["post-536457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-housing-market","tag-jasmine-young","tag-multi-family","tag-taylor-pardy","tag-the-prairies-at-canada-mortgage-and-housing-corp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}