Edmonton's steadily rising population is coming head-to-head with a strained housing market, in which the cost of buying a home has become too high and the supply of rental units has hit its lowest point in a decade.The overall vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments in Edmonton dropped to 2.4 per cent in 2023 as rental demand outpaced new supplies entering the market, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
"Currently, the rental system is being affected by a range of factors of higher demand from economic growth and population increases — including students — and the availability of supply," said Taylor Pardy, CMHC's lead economist of the Prairies and Territories, in a statement to CBC News.Migrants are driving a population surge — and Alberta is the fastest-growing province: StatsCan
Monica Kumar, an Edmonton-based real estate agent for Initia Real Estate and a landlord with several rental properties, says a combination of factors are helping to shift the market toward renting. Last month in the Greater Edmonton area, there were about 4,500 residential homes of all types for sale, including about 2,200 new listings, according toOf that inventory, there were 1,439 homes sold, with an average selling price of $399,000, it said.
The Edmonton region had a population of 1.1 million in 2022, an increase by almost 11 per cent since 2017, according to aNon-profit developer Yasushi Ohki wants to push the envelope on density, sustainability and affordability for neighbourhoods in the city.