AIRDRIE’S ENDURING APPEAL
City attracts variety of buyers as it enjoys ‘more reasonable’ rate of growth
Growth in Airdrie didn’t match soaring numbers from recent years, but last year’s uptick is “more reasonable,” says the city’s head of planning and development.
The latest municipal census puts Airdrie’s population at 58,690, which is a growth rate of 6.92 per cent. A year earlier, the small city to the north saw an 11 per cent hike.
“Anything approaching five gets a lot more reasonable from the perspective of keeping up with infrastructure,” says Tracy Corbett, Airdrie’s manager of planning and sustainable development. “When it’s over five, it’s challenging. You’re really chasing that growth in terms of keeping up with schools and improvements just with city services.”
New housing also climbed in Airdrie with an eight per cent boost in single-family and multi-family dwellings, says the city.
Most of the new residential construction came from filling out established areas between Main Street and 8th Street S.W. and 1st Avenue N.W. and Railway Gate. But Windsong by Mattamy Homes led the city’s new communities in growth with 253 for 1,233 dwellings in total. Windsong is now the third most populated community in Airdrie with 3,336 residents, behind King’s Heights with 4,257 and Luxstone’s 3,642.
The dispersion between singlefamily homes and multi-family units in Airdrie so far this year has been “quite balanced,” says Corbett. From Jan. 1 through June 8, Airdrie has allotted 290 singlefamily home permits and 257 on the multi-family side.
“In some of the communities that are building out, quite often, the multi-unit area is sold to a different builder and they often develop later in the phases,” says Corbett. “That’s not happening so much with our new NSP (neighbourhood structure plans) but certainly with ones that have been on the books for a while. So suddenly we’ll get a spike in multi-unit development and usually that’s because certain parcels are building out.”
Between Jan. 1 and the end of June, 316 single- family homes broke ground in Airdrie, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. This was joined by 30 construction starts on duplexes, 96 town houses and 284 apartment-style condos.
“Airdrie continues to appeal to a variety of buyers,” says Richard Cho, principal of market analysis at CMHC. “Its close proximity to Calgary and lower home prices has helped support housing demand.”
Anita and Rob Meers bought a home in Windsong after the couple were married in 2010. They’re now putting down roots at a move-up home in Southwinds, which is Mat- tamy’s latest Airdrie community just south of Windsong.
“We both grew up in (Calgary) wanted to move to a place that was smaller, but wasn’t like a small town, either,” says Anita. “A place that had the things you needed, the grocery stores and all that, but didn’t have that big city feel.”
While Airdrie’s bigger than when they sent a moving truck to Windsong five years ago, the growth has been positive, putting an ever wider selection of shops and services well within reach, Anita says.
“There were a couple of things that I had to go into Calgary for and I don’t anymore,” says Anita. “We have everything that we kind of need up here and it’s continuing to get bigger. There are more houses and amenities. It’s a really nice place to live.”
In fact, that’s it for the Meers family. Southwinds isn’t just a move-up, it’s where they’re settling down.
“We’ll stay here forever,” Anita says. “The house that we’re building in Southwinds is going to be our forever home, so it’s a lot bigger and we put a little more into it because we’re planning on staying.”
They bought the Ruby model, a home measuring 2,468 square feet with a two-car front-attached garage.
“I like Airdrie because there are a lot of young families,” says Anita. “Windsong is right beside Chinook Winds Park, and there’s a splash park and baseball diamonds and the skate park and all that. With Southwinds, it’s only a five to 10 minute walk from there.”
Southwinds is one of a number of places to buy a new home in Airdrie. On the west end of the city, other master-planned communities include HillCrest by Apex Land, Cooper’s Crossing by WestMark Holdings and Genesis Land Developments Bayside and Canals Landing. There’s also Williamstown by Vesta Properties and Hopewell Residential’s Heron Pointe at Reunion, which are selling in their respective last phases of development.
Across the highway, Ravenswood and King’s Heights sit side-by-side on Airdrie’s southeast corner. King’s Height is by Melcor Developments and now about 80 per cent complete. The community is selling into its 18th phase, which is about 70 per cent sold.
Ravenswood is by Qualico Communities and selling into its third and sixth phases.
A new show home parade is slated to open Sept. 19 and the developer is organizing a block party to mark the occasion.
The parade will include eight show homes, comprised of four laned homes and four that are front-drive.