With flooding putting pressure on an already tight rental market, the head of one Calgary housing agency said demand has grown exponentially.

David Watson, director of Attainable Homes Calgary Corporation (AHCC) – the non-profit organization that works to deliver entry-level homes for Calgarians – said over the last year, interest has increased substantially.

Alberta's rental vacancy rate was 1.5 per cent this April, a 50 per cent decrease in vacancy compared to the same time last year.

"Employment gains and heightened levels of net migration pushed vacancies lower in most of the province's urban markets between the two survey periods," said Lai Sing Louie, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation economist.

As temperatures in Calgary increased in May, so did the city's housing starts.

"The trend of total housing starts increased slightly in May, due to strong construction in both the single-detached and multi-family markets," said Richard Cho, senior market analyst for Calgary with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

For the month of May, housing starts in the city were 11,316 units compared to 11,270 in April. The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of total housing starts.

Jumping into the new home pool is first-time buyer Duncan Hall, 25, set to take possession of his newly constructed condo in July.

"I have rented before but found that owning is smarter in the long run," he said. "I didn't like paying someone else's mortgage when I was renting and wanted to own something that would help me in the long run."