Aakhil Lakhani, a first-time homebuyer, and their dog, Pike, in their south-central Edmonton home on May 8.Amanda Erickson/The Globe and Mail
Over the past two decades, housing affordability has consistently dwindled across Canada’s largest cities, limiting the choices available to first-time home buyers to cramped apartments in suburban, car-oriented neighbourhoods, if they are to have an option at all.
CMHC’s home ownership affordability index suggests that while unaffordability took hold of Vancouver and Toronto in the early 1990s, affordability in Montreal and Halifax didn’t erode significantly until 2021.
In 2022, Calgary followed, whereas Edmonton has bucked this trend, despite the city’s continued population growth.
Although resale prices in Alberta’s capital have risen out of reach for many first-time buyers, a $400,000 budget still unlocks a wide range of choices – from charming bungalows and trendy apartments in trendy neighbourhoods such as Westmount, Wîhkwêntôwin and Garneau, to contemporary townhomes and single-detached dwellings near schools, shopping and future LRT stations on Edmonton’s outskirts.
Decoder: More first-time homebuyers rely on parents to co-sign mortgages than ever before
The city’s moderate prices, combined with abundant choice, allowed Aakhil Lakhani, who uses the pronoun they, to buy their first home without compromising their lifestyle preferences or their budget.
“Home ownership has been a goal of mine since I was a child,” they say.
“I wanted a single-detached home because I love gardening, and a yard is really important to me.”
The 33-year-old engineer began their search in January, 2025, after Mx. Lakhani’s rent in downtown Edmonton increased to $1,350 a month, an amount that made carrying a mortgage a more affordable choice than renting.
Having saved up for a substantial down payment, Mx. Lakhani spent close to a year viewing properties in central Edmonton, but it wasn’t until December that they made a conditional offer on a 1912 foursquare in Parkdale, located a few blocks from 118th Avenue, the historical neighbourhood’s main drag, also known as Alberta Avenue, and a 15-minute walk from an LRT station.
“I love the large mature trees of this neighbourhood,” says Mx. Lakhani, who doesn’t own a car.
“Four of my friends live within walking distance of my house.”
The city’s moderate prices, combined with abundant choice, allowed Mx. Lakhani to buy their first home without compromising their lifestyle preferences or their budget.Amanda Erickson/The Globe and Mail
Mx. Lakhani’s was not a purchase rushed by a fear of missing out.
A relatively balanced market gave the first-time home buyer enough leverage to negotiate over $90,000 in repairs with the seller without raising the property’s $340,900 listed price.
“I wanted to make sure I was buying something good,” they say. “I plan to live here for a very long time.”
With Edmonton’s median sale price reaching $418,000 in April, appreciation remains modest across segments.
Detached homes and townhouses lead the way. Relative to 2022, when the city’s population began climbing, median sale prices in these segments have risen by 12 and 17 per cent respectively, while condos lag behind at 10 per cent growth.
According to Troy Paquette, an Edmonton broker and chair-elect of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, a balanced rental market has been essential to maintaining reasonable resale prices, as lower rents seem to deter investor buyers from other provinces.
HR manager, 41, says buyer’s market helped her purchase $520,000 Toronto condo
“Most condo buildings in Edmonton don’t allow short-term rentals like Airbnb,” he says. “So you’re dealing with lease-style rentals, which requires out-of-province investors to hire an outside management company, whose cost can affect an investor’s return.”
Even as rental rates trend up, surpassing the monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced two-bedroom apartment, Edmonton’s persistent affordability across the board is creating challenges for condo sellers looking to come out ahead.
“In a shifting market, condos are the last to receive a lift up, and the first to receive the bump down,” says Tom Shearer, broker and owner at Edmonton’s Royal LePage Noralta.
“Because your money goes so far here in Alberta, first-time buyers can skip the condo as their starting point – they can go right into a townhouse, half a duplex or even a single-family home.”
So far this year, apartment sales have dipped by 20 per cent, RAE estimates, and although median sale prices in the condo segment remain above 2022 levels, increased competition means that some Edmonton sellers are taking a hit.
Opinion: Trapped in their starter homes: Canada has a second-time homebuyer problem
Such is the case of Shirley Tse, an Edmonton DJ and event producer.
After five years of renting out her one-bedroom apartment in Queen Mary Park, an up-and-coming neighbourhood in central Edmonton, Ms. Tse listed the 1993 condo in mid-April, as the success of Vibe Collective, an electronic music organization she co-founded with a group of Edmonton women, has reduced Ms. Tse’s capacity to adequately manage a rental property.
“I was holding on to this condo as a rental for a sense of stability,” she says. “It allowed me to take on work as an artist. But over time, the reality of managing it started to take energy away from my creative work and community initiatives.”
Ms. Tse was a first-time buyer when she purchased the 632-square-foot condo in 2014, and lived in the property until she moved in with her partner seven years later.
The neatly kept apartment is currently listed at a bargain $152,000, or about $10,000 less than what Ms. Tse paid 12 years ago, but the musician would rather sell in a soft market than have the property’s demands hinder her career.
“Selling the condo would really open up opportunities to host workshops outside of the city,” Ms. Tse says, pointing to times when her landlady duties interfered with her capacity to travel.
“I would also have the time and energy to develop workshop materials and develop a safer spaces policy.”