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Courtesy Jayman Built
Courtesy Jayman Built

Nov. 14, 2018 | Mario Toneguzzi

High multi-family inventories mean plenty of choices for homebuyers

If you're looking to enter the condo market in Calgary these days, there's certainly a lot of choice available among new apartment-style condos and those on the resale market

As of the end of October, year-to-date MLS® System sales totalled 2,316 units, down 6.5 per cent compared with the same period a year ago, and the inventory of properties for sale sat at 1,666 units, which was up by 0.75 per cent.

However, the most telling number is months of supply. The months of supply indicate how long it would take to sell all the homes listed for sale given the current demand. At the end of October, it stood at an elevated 7.12 months, up 1.56 per cent from a year ago.

James Cuddy, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), said Calgary, and all of Alberta, is still feeling the effects of the most recent recession.
"Inventories were quite high, but have come down considerably since about March 2017, when we saw the inventory peak for apartment-type units." - James Cuddy, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

"Ultimately, there was a lot of activity leading up to the recession. Once the oil price shock hit (in the latter half of 2014), it kind of pulled the demand out of the market and really the end result was an imbalance between supply and demand," said Cuddy.

"But a lot of the inventory has come down quite a bit since a year and a half ago when it was quite high."

Here are the latest numbers from CMHC on multi-family housing starts in the Calgary region up until the end of October:

  • Semi-detached starts have fallen to 1,060 from 1,120 a year ago

  • Row starts are down from 1,322 last year to 1,210 this year

  • Apartment starts have risen to 4,066 from 3,221 in 2017

  • The number of semi-detached homes under construction was 826

  • The number of row homes under construction was 1,346

  • The number of apartments under construction was 7,443


"Inventories were quite high, but have come down considerably since about March 2017, when we saw the inventory peak for apartment-type units," said Cuddy. "Absorption has moved at a good pace since the height of the recession for condos."

Tagged: Calgary | Calgary Real Estate | Calgary Real Estate News | Calgary Real Estate News | Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation | City of Calgary | Guest Column | Housing Market


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