Calgary region a hotbed for new home construction

The Calgary region is among the country’s busiest when it comes to new home construction, says a report assessing new residential development.

The BuzzBuzz Home report said the region has by far the most construction relative to its size.

“And with condos representing just under one-third of the units under construction in the City of Calgary, and just under one quarter of the units in the (region), the city is taking advantage of its space,” said the secondquarter report on Canada’s Top 10 residential construction markets.

It found the Calgary region has 2.42 homes per 100 peo- ple under construction. The next best was the Edmonton region at 1.56.

Calgary had the third highest number of homes under construction in the second quarter at 29,438 behind Montreal (30,238) and Toronto (81,061).

The report said Calgary had 6,506 condos under construction or 22.1 per cent of the total and 22,932 townhouses/houses or 77.9 per cent of the total.

Wayne Copeland, president of the Canadian Home Builders Association-Calgary Region, said the creation of jobs in Calgary and the province is a big factor in increased homebuilding activity.

“I think the idea of having a place to go and the opportunity to create a living for you and your family is driving people here in droves,” said Copeland.

The increase in population is driving demand for housing. Low inventory on the resale market is also placing more demand for new home construction.

“It’s a domino effect in us just becoming as busy as we have been since 2006-2007,” said Copeland.

“I think as far as homebuilding it’s going to be relatively status quo (for the rest of the year). We still have a number of people coming into the city and everybody that I talk to still remains fairly confident in this market.”