New home builds are on the rise in Alberta's biggest cities

In the housing market in Alberta, supply has had a tough time keeping up with demand, which means we’ve seen a boom in new projects.

The latest housing supply numbers show Calgary and Edmonton are among the highest in the country in terms of new build starts.

Housing starts in both the two major Alberta cities have seen an increase of about 20% since the beginning of the year.

In Calgary, construction increased for all types of housing. Low stock and strong demand played a role in this expansion.

New apartment construction has really boosted the numbers for Calgary. High-rise construction is up 16% while low-rise starts are up 28% from last year.

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Meanwhile, in Edmonton, new home starts are up 23%. This is the third year in a row of growth in this area.

Single-detached starts made up about half of the total starts. This was in response to the growing demand for single-family homes from first-time and move-up homebuyers, which had started in the first year of the pandemic.

Edmonton had the highest inventory of completed and unsold housing units when compared with other major cities in Canada in the first half of 2022.

The report says these numbers may start to come down as it is starting to take longer to get projects done in Edmonton. They say the average time between receiving the permit to build and starting construction increased from 2.3 months to 3.2 months due to labour shortages and supply chain issues.

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As for the rest of the country, Toronto has also seen an improvement, but Canada’s overall numbers have been brought down by decreases in Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal.

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporationhttps://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/building-crane-under-construction-against-blue-755723200

After a boom recorded last year, housing starts in the country’s six largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) fell 5% in the first half of 2022. The decrease observed for apartments (-9%) is the main cause of this drop. On an annualized basis, however, housing starts in the first half of 2022 remained high compared to the level of construction over the past five years.