Calgary real-estate market has been hot for a while, since 2022. The price have skyrocketed for many months continuously. Traditionally, Calgary is not a top market for housing. It is mostly the secondary market in Western Canada, and Vancouver is the crown. Calgary's market normally follow's Vancouver's lead, up and down. However, around 2022, post-pandemic, Calgary's real estate starts to pickup like all other cities in Canada. However, the difference is, Calgary momentum continues. According to this article from Calgary's real-estate blog, the housing sales for June 2023 have increased 10%.
So, why Calgary's real estate market remain hot, while others started to slow down? There are several reasons, and today, we will explore them.
1. Liveability
In recent years, Calgary have been ranked high on many liveability survey. Calgary's art & culture, transportation, living style, diversity, job-diversity have grown a lot since the 90s. Many people have eyed Calgary as their ultimate living city. It is not the oil city it's known for back in the 90s anymore. Calgary become more active and lively from before. Yes, it is still the "Cowtown" and "Cowgary", but Calgary welcomed everyone.
Hiking is a hot activity in recent years, and covid have definitely pushed the popularity even higher. Being close to internationally known Banff and Rocky Mountain, definitely attracted a lot of people coming. Within an hour of driving, you got a pretty big backyard.
2. Name
Calgary's name is also more popular in the world. It has more international direct flight from before. Calgary also built a name for many Hong Konger as well. Traditionally, Vancouver and Toronto are Hong Konger's well known cities, and also the only two most people know. But due to more Hong Konger (香港人) wants to move to Canada, Calgary (卡加利) become the 3rd known cities for the new immigrants. The immigration helped spread out the words in the name. Other hand Hong Konger, Ukrainians also plays a factor. Alberta has a large population of Ukrainians settled in. And due to war, many decided to move, temporary or not, to Canada. And Alberta become one of the major destination for Ukrainians.
Within Canada, Alberta also buy commercial spot in other major Canadian cities, to promote Alberta. And obviously, Calgary being one of the 2 major cities in Alberta benefits.
3. City in right size
Calgary has about 1.4 millions residents as of 2022. This is considered a medium-sized city within Canada. The benefit is a city not too big, and not too small. Too big of a city means too many people, crime, and bureaucracy. And too small means less employment opportunities, less diverse, and less livelihood. So, as a medium city in Canada, City of Calgary can be more innovative and less red-tape for its residents. For example, Calgary and Vancouver's non-cash payment for public transportation are done relative in similar time frame. Calgary's solution is completed within months, while Vancouver's took years to complete. Vancouver's approach is more a traditional card-based system, where Calgary simply used an APP as a payment form. And in 21st century, APP makes more sense. However, there are a lot of bureaucracy in Vancouver that forced them to use a traditional method.
4. Young
Calgary's population are generally younger than other cities. So the thinking of the city is more acceptable to new technology and forward thinking. This attracts even more newer generations to bulid family in Calgary. New generations means better future outlook. The potential to the housing market is huge.
5. Living cost and Real Estate
When Vancouver and Toronto's housing skyrocketed, this force people to re-think, rather they really want to be slavery of rent or explore other options. Calgary's housing price, rental are still much lower than these 2 cities, and yet, Calgary offer the similar Canadian experience of other bigger cities. The government have been diversifying job category in recent years. This allow different job skills to have a descent job in Calgary. Calgary is a young and expanding city, which allow for many opportunities for the younger generations to settle. With good jobs and lower living cost, people realize Calgary has the best deal package. Many people would rather spend the money on themselves, than paying for someone else's mortgage and rent. The better affordability let people focus on their life, than to make ends meet.
With the hugh potential and market in Calgary, real estate developer is now re-focusing in Calgary's market. When there is population growth, business will come. This further pushes the housing price up. In June 2023, Calgary saw the largest increase in new real estate development within last 10 years. So, Calgary is definitely here for another boom.
So, These are the reasons I got for hot real-estate market. Many of these info are translated from this website, Calgary Buy Sell House (卡加利房屋資訊網). This is a news article (中文新聞) with housing info in Calgary's market. If you have a friend who is Taiwanese (台灣人), Hong Konger (香港人, 廣東話) or Chinese (華人), this would be a valuable website for them to research on. Unfortunately, they don't have an English version of the website yet. I hope they do soon, as they have pretty good insight in the real estate market (樓房市埸).
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