Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. It’s no secret Calgary home builders have been constructing new homes fast and furiously after record-breaking starts over the past three years.
Yet as trade strife looms, one tailwind for builders is that the city is among the most construction-friendly major municipalities in Canada, a new study shows. “Calgary scores second-best of all the major metropolitan areas and remains one of the most affordable,” says Brian Hahn, chief executive officer of BILD Calgary Region. The head of the Calgary arm of Canadian Home Builders’ Association is referring to the recently published Municipal Benchmarking 2024 Study, which ranks Canadian municipalities’ development and homebuilding frameworks — from fee costs to permitting timelines.
Central to its premise is understanding whether municipalities are helping boost supply and contributing to housing affordability — or not. These are hot-button topics with new housing supply not keeping pace with population growth for more than a decade. As the study notes from 2022 to 2024, Canada’s population surged, while home starts did not keep up, meeting only about a quarter of demand.
The consequence has been surging home prices, especially in Canada’s largest cities. In Vancouver, the report notes that home servicing costs exceed 70 per cent of household in.
