Gabrielle Flores and Daniel Comaduran with their daughter Renee Comaduran-Flores in their apartment in Calgary on March 26. The price of new-build townhouses has crept above levels typical between 2023 and 2025, says CMHC.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
In the wake of a construction boom, townhouses have become a compelling alternative for young Calgary families starting out or moving up in the housing ladder. The housing type offers many of the advantages of a detached home at a fraction of the cost.
But a record number of completions has created a glut of unsold, new-build inventory at a price-point out of reach for first-time buyers.
According to CMHC data, the price of new-build townhouses has crept above levels typical between 2023 and 2025. During this period, the share of newly built townhomes priced at or above $500,000 jumped from 40 to 72 per cent, as demand intensified.
“Many projects started in the early 2020s were targeted to Toronto investors,” says Edward Jegg, research manager of data solutions at Altus Group. He notes that, as more townhouse projects reach completion, “a number of [those sales to out-of-town investors] are not going through, so they are coming back to the market, helping push up inventory.”
The drying up of the investor buyer pool has distorted the economics of townhouse development in the city.
Calgary home sales fall 13 per cent in March amid pullback in condo activity
Altus Group estimates that the unsold inventory of townhomes consistently remained below 1,000 dwellings between the second quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2025. But as investor demand has waned, the number of unsold townhomes reached 1,030 by the year’s fourth quarter.
Relative to 2024, “there’s been a substantial pullback from an investor standpoint,” says Jennifer McIntosh, an agent with KIC Realty specializing in new-build homes. “In the past two or three months, we’ve seen buyers dipping their toes back in, but the market is not as pressure-filled as it was.”
Michael Ferianec, an agent with Calgary brokerage Urban Upgrade & New Infills, suggests that one reason for this is that the cash flow that once made new-build townhomes an attractive investment has dwindled, as a healthy supply of purpose-built rentals, combined with slower population growth, drives down asking rents.
“We’re starting to see more flip-over from rental to sale,” he says. “Because the rental market already has a lot of listings.”
Meanwhile, new-build townhomes remain out of reach for many Calgary buyers looking for more space in a central neighbourhood.
To accommodate their growing family, Justin Simaluk and his wife began searching for a three-bedroom home in Calgary’s inner city in 2023. Because townhomes were the only dwelling type in Calgary’s inner city that met the couple’s need for additional space on a $500,000 budget, the Simaluks focused their search on this segment.
Justin Simaluk in Calgary on March 25. Mr. Simaluk and his wife bought a 1,594-square foot, three-bedroom townhouse in Killarney last October.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
At the time, in 2023, three out of five newly built townhomes in Calgary were priced below the $500,000 mark, but few were located in a central neighbourhood.
“We wanted to live inner-city,” Mr. Simaluk says. “But because of the prices we were looking at, our expectations were very low, and we were willing to accept anything, in any condition, that was three bedrooms.”
Last October, after eight months of consistently viewing properties, the Simaluks moved on a 1,594-square foot, three-bedroom townhouse in Killarney, located within a 20-minute walk of a light-rail station, a public library and a recreation centre.
“It needed a bit of renovating,” Mr. Simaluk says. “But it worked perfectly for us; this is our forever home.”
Some Calgary buyers hope to have similar luck in 2026.
After toughing it out in a one-bedroom apartment since their firstborn’s arrival in 2022, Daniel Comadurán and Atenea Flores are gearing up to buy a three-bedroom townhouse on a $400,000 budget.
But unless they move to a suburban neighbourhood, which would require the couple to also buy a car, new-build townhomes are well beyond Mr. Comadurán and Ms. Flores’s reach.
“We don’t really like the suburbs because everything is far away,” Mr. Comadurán says. “We’d like to find something that’s within walking distance from the CTrain.”
Ottawa’s Housing Accelerator Fund scores big in Alberta, but affordable home development still lags
Despite a growing townhouse inventory in both the new-build and resale markets, finding a property that fulfills the growing family’s needs won’t be an easy feat.
In February, the median resale price in the townhouse segment surpassed $440,000, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board, and out of 950 townhouses listed in Calgary’s MLS in mid-March, only 15 properties met all of the couple’s requirements, which include paying less than $500 in monthly condo fees.
“The most affordable price point is on greenfield development,” says Kevin French, a Calgary realtor with Charles Real Estate, pointing at building out neighbourhoods on Calgary’s outskirts such as Seton, Belmont and Livingston.
“For buyers looking for new-build townhomes, they can find two-bedroom units with attached garages on the outskirts of the city in the $320,000 to $375,000 range.”
In established neighbourhoods, by contrast, new-builds in this segment are more expensive because they typically cater to more affluent buyers.
“Developers are always trying to match what buyers are looking for in a certain neighbourhood,” says Mr. Ferianec, of Urban Upgrade & New Infills.
“When people look into more expensive areas, like Marda Loop, buyers expect more quality.”
To make new-builds more accessible to first-time buyers, the federal government introduced a GST rebate for first-time buyers purchasing a newly built dwelling priced up to $1-million.
Because affordability remains an issue in Calgary, Mr. Jegg, of Altus Group, believes that “anything that reduces the price of a new home by tens of thousands of dollars is bound to help a first-time buyer.”
However, as unemployment in Calgary remains high and rising oil prices impact the cost of living, many would-be buyers could stay on the sidelines this year, indirectly undermining new supply and future affordability.
“Builders want to sell existing homes before they start selling new ones because they’ve already made the financial investment,” Mr. Jegg says. “If you’re not selling your buildings, that will affect starts, and when demand comes back, we’re going to have a bit of a shortage, which could then put some price pressures into the future if demand starts outstripping supply.”