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Call it a rental boom.
A new report shows that Calgary’s commercial real estate sector is driven by demand for housing, resulting in unprecedented purpose-built rental development in the city.
“We’re seeing more multi-family purpose-built rentals constructed than apartment condominiums,” says Darryl Terrio, broker with Re/Max Complete Realty in Calgary. The Re/Max 2024 Commercial Real Estate Report notes purpose-built rental development starts overtook condominium starts for the first time in 2023.
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Driving that growth has been record migration to the city leading to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reporting that rental vacancy was 1.4 per cent in the fall of last year.
“The influx of interprovincial migration and immigrants is challenging the city’s housing stock, with vacancy rates at the lowest level in a decade,” the report notes.
That led to “more than 3,000 new units” in the city in 2023 “in the Beltline, downtown and the North Hill areas.” Terrio adds that recent changes to zoning bylaws in the city, allowing for higher density housing in typically single-family detached home neighbourhoods, have spurred a boom in small-scale multi-family projects.
“It’s just so much more affordable and feasible now to build multi-family rental,” he says.
A factor in that is CMHC’s MLI Select program allowing builders to get financing with only a five per cent down payment providing the new build, or renovation on an existing building, meet certain affordability, accessibility and climate compatibility metrics.
“Everybody is wanting to build a fourplex or put a suite in their house, but once you’re into five units or more, you can qualify for this CMHC program offering 95 per cent financing,” Terrio says.
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The Re/Max report notes that multi-family development — next to industrial real estate — is not just the hottest sector in Calgary. It’s leading development across Canada due to record high international migration, sparking huge demand for housing that has outpaced supply.
“The big story is how much investment there is in multi-family unit residential affordable housing units,” says Chris Alexander, president of Re/Max Canada.
“For the foreseeable future we will see a lot of that going to purpose-built rentals and affordable multi-family housing.”
The report notes that — besides Calgary — Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg, London, Ottawa and Halifax had vacancy rates below 1.8 per cent, driven by net international migration of more than 1.2 million people in 2023. Yet Alberta stands out in particular, adding about 202,000 more residents last year, or 4.4 per cent growth, the fastest rate since 1981.
The Re/Max report also highlights Calgary’s success in redeveloping downtown office space into rental and other housing, noting that by next year more than 11,000 people will live in the downtown core.
Alexander adds that Calgary’s multi-family market reminds him of Toronto’s market in the early 2000s.
“There was a lot of new construction development with condo towers and investors looking to rent them out,” he says. “There were a lot of people wanting to move to the city at the time, as well as investing in from across Canada and outside the country.”
That growing demand helped push prices to where they are today, with the average selling price of an apartment condominium in May sitting at nearly $700,000 in Toronto.
Alexander notes those investments 20 years ago were “big time” successful.
HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.
Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.
Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.
The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.
Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.
They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.
The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.
Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.
Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500
Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438
Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103
Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359
Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent
How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.
Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.
More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.
Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.
An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
