[CBBarnett]

Strong rental numbers support what we see with all these purpose-built rentals throughout the city going up. Vacancy in apartments down from 6.3% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2018, despite an additional 1,407 units coming online. Another interesting finding: while buildings of all ages saw vacancy decreasing, the drop was largest in the 2005+ apartments dropping from 7% to 2.8% despite the highest average rents. This change is illustrating that there is demand for the higher quality new builds with more amenities, likely exacerbated by the large gap that was created through a few decades of negative apartment growth. EDIT: In Calgary, you seem to have largely only 2 choices in apartments; new smaller unit builds with the fully amenity packages (windows, insuite laundry), pre-1990 apartments with shared laundries, terrible bike parking, lots of dark corners etc.

From the report, a few theories of why rentals are booming in Calgary were presented:

CMHC Rental Market Report, Calgary CMA link

• aging population and people become much more likely to rent at 65+ years old (a national phenomenon, not just local)
• Steady population, job and immigration growth (a local factor, but also a nation-wide CMA story as most are growing steadily, Calgary still being one of the faster growing ones)
• Less growth in the traditional high-pay professional O&G jobs, so less movement from renters to owners than previous (a key local factor).
• As most cities don't have an out-sized, well-paying industry like O&G this is a key long run structural difference between Calgary and the rest with decades-long streak of thousands of would-be renters easily able to afford ownership compared to their similar cohorts in other centres

CMHC Rental Market Report, Alberta link

• Wanted to highlight one thing: Edmonton CMA has 69,070 apartments v. Calgary CMAs 39,567 highlighting a structural difference in the two cities
• The contrast between Calgary and other large CMAs outside of Alberta is even more extreme. Ottawa has +80,000 apartments between the Que & Ont sides
• While Calgary has slightly larger amounts of secondary condo units for rent (23,000 v. 21,000 ish compared to Edmonton), the gap in total rental capacity is quite large per capita

 

[UrbanRED]

Strong rental numbers support what we see with all these purpose-built rentals throughout the city going up. Vacancy in apartments down from 6.3% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2018, despite an additional 1,407 units coming online. Another interesting finding: while buildings of all ages saw vacancy decreasing, the drop was largest in the 2005+ apartments dropping from 7% to 2.8% despite the highest average rents. Illustrating that there is demand for the higher quality builds with more amenities and the large gap that was created through a few decades of negative apartment growth.

From the report, a few theories of why rentals are booming in Calgary were presented:

CMHC Rental Market Report, Calgary CMA link

• aging population and people become much more likely to rent at 65+ years old (a national phenomenon, not just local)
• Steady population, job and immigration growth (a local factor, but also a nation-wide CMA story as most are growing steadily, Calgary still being one of the faster growing ones)
• Less growth in the traditional high-pay professional O&G jobs, so less movement from renters to owners than previous (a key local factor).
• As most cities don't have an out-sized, well-paying industry like O&G this is a key long run structural difference between Calgary and the rest with decades-long streak of thousands of would-be renters easily able to afford ownership compared to their similar cohorts in other centres

CMHC Rental Market Report, Alberta link

• Wanted to highlight one thing: Edmonton CMA has 69,070 apartments v. Calgary CMAs 39,567 highlighting a structural difference in the two cities
• The contrast between Calgary and other large CMAs outside of Alberta is even more extreme. Ottawa has +80,000 apartments between the Que & Ont sides
• While Calgary has slightly larger amounts of secondary condo units for rent (23,000 v. 21,000 ish compared to Edmonton), the gap in total rental capacity is quiet large per capita

Wow I am shocked at the Edmonton vs Calgary apartment numbers. I grew up in Edmonton and it wasn't obvious that Edmonton had so many more apartments available, but perhaps the suburbs are more distinct that I had realized.

 

[darwink]

Wow I am shocked at the Edmonton vs Calgary apartment numbers. I grew up in Edmonton and it wasn't obvious that Edmonton had so many more apartments available, but perhaps the suburbs are more distinct that I had realized.

Edmonton's big university depending on how you measure it has 10-20 thousand more students than UCalgary. And for a long time wages were lower, so drove relative preferences. Probably some is just luck and randomness.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Annnnnd another!

 

[Mountain Man]

So glad they are doing something with the Barron Building! that building is too good to sit there empty and rotting away.

 

[Calgcouver]

Annnnnd another!


View attachment 165381

Looks awesome. I would seriously consider renting here.

Strategic's office

I think it would really cool if they converted Strategic's current office into apartments as well, and pulling down these lower-value mid-block buildings and replacing them with apartments/lofts of a similar scale to Strategic's office and the Barron Building.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Update on @Spring2008 's list of Beltline condo projects. Park Place now finished. Cube, Curtis Block and Redstone coming on line.

Beltline Current Projects

U/C Units
Underwood Tower - 225
11th and 11th - 369 (site prep)
Marriott Residences - 303
One Tower - 379
500 Block South - 463
The Royal - 223
Curtis Block - (628 site prep)
Redstone - 137 (Site prep)
Cube - 66

Pre-sales
Nude 177

Site Prep
Total Units: 2,970

 

[Surrealplaces]

Wow I am shocked at the Edmonton vs Calgary apartment numbers. I grew up in Edmonton and it wasn't obvious that Edmonton had so many more apartments available, but perhaps the suburbs are more distinct that I had realized.

I find that the apartment units in Edmonton are more spread out throughout the city, far more low-rise walkups outside of the core than in Calgary (for example there seems to be a lot more in areas like Leduic, Sherwood Park, St Albert, etc..). The downtown and inner city totals probably aren't that much different, so it's not immediately noticeable.

 

[Spring2008]

Part of it is the huge rental to condo conversion in Calgary during the 90's and 2000's plus higher ownership numbers here. During the boom years I remember reading through Altus reports which had Calgary about 3 to 4 times the amount of new inner-city condo sales than Edm. Other inner-city infill such as duplex and townhouse are also much more common here.

Regardless, it's great to see newer (2000+) apartments at about 2% vacancy in the Beltline even with a large amount of new product recently delivered. It's great to have more options on the rental side too. Many people hesitant to buy these days. I think we can expect to see another few rental towers a year in the Beltline going forward, barring another global recession.

 

[gsunnyg]

I don't think anyone mentioned this project in depth yet by ASI. Its The Sentinel one on 17th ave and 14 st. SW. A land use application was submitted back in spring to allow for more density/height. The project will include retail and an urban market on lower levels plus approx. 400 units on top! They'd like the height to be changed from 23m to 90m so most likely the project will have to be two towers in order to fit that many units. The application is expected to have its Public Hearing in Q1 2019.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

Bye bye old CBC:

The word from Anthem is that they are at least a year away from starting this. They wanted to demo the old building so that they did not have to provide security on site any longer.

 

[Habanero]

90m.....that's going to draw some fire from the Scarboro crowd. I'm not a NIMBY myself, but I kinda wonder about the 90m height? That's a lotta height for that location. 50m would seem more doable.

I don't think anyone mentioned this project in depth yet by ASI. Its The Sentinel one on 17th ave and 14 st. SW. A land use application was submitted back in spring to allow for more density/height. The project will include retail and an urban market on lower levels plus approx. 400 units on top! They'd like the height to be changed from 23m to 90m so most likely the project will have to be two towers in order to fit that many units. The application is expected to have its Public Hearing in Q1 2019.
View attachment 165626
View attachment 165627

 

[Mountain Man]

That's shorter than the Royal, so I don't think it should be an issue. Technically, that site is in Sunalta though, so any pushback will come from that community, Scarborough shouldn't really get a say as it's not their area (this won't stop them from complaining though I'm sure).

 

[Surrealplaces]

Sunalta is the neighborhood most affected, but I'm sure Scarboro residents will complain about traffic lol. I think given it's in Sunalta, there may be an issue with the height, bit maybe the developer is going for 90m and hoping for 50m?

 

[Stephen Ave]

It looks truly cool in that rendering.

Annnnnd another!


View attachment 165381