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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion

some nice new townhomes in my 'hood

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I don’t remember, are they also redoing the sidewalks and plaza in and around old city hall? I hope they replant all the old elms that used to stand there. City Hall plaza is garbage and needs a major overhaul. Acres of boring and bland brushed concrete, a terrible excuse for a water fountain, and cracked steps.
 
Thank you. We'll be starting tours in the next two weeks, so come on by.
Our architect (Oscar Flechas) really deserves all the credit. He's extremely talented.
they really look great, a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. now if you guys could develop the apartment building across the street, that would be great (its a dump) :p
 
Thank you. We'll be starting tours in the next two weeks, so come on by.
Our architect (Oscar Flechas) really deserves all the credit. He's extremely talented.
A really clean and simple design, a slope adaptive building with appropriate setbacks and rhythm of entrances/unit widths. Got it all right on this one. Nice job Oscar 👌
 
they really look great, a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. now if you guys could develop the apartment building across the street, that would be great (its a dump) :p

I was told they are looking at an 11 unit approval for that dum....errrr... lot ;)

Our next one is up the road at 17th & 28th (we do one unique build a year) so we're trying.
 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/upscale-rental-apartments-calgary-1.5642881 some good news for once! I hope this continues to encourage more developers to move forward with rental towers in the midst of this pandemic.
The picture is certainly being painted as optimistic. However the decisions to build those towers currently under construction were made 1-2 years ago. There is hardly a shortage of supply now. All of the new rental buildings that opened in the couple of years ...., SoDa, Underwood, Portfolio, The Hat 7th Ave & East Village, Aura 1 & 2, The Metropolitan ..... all have units available. I am not so sure the same market conditions exist today particularly with the uncertainty of the pandemic.
 
The picture is certainly being painted as optimistic. However the decisions to build those towers currently under construction were made 1-2 years ago. There is hardly a shortage of supply now. All of the new rental buildings that opened in the couple of years ...., SoDa, Underwood, Portfolio, The Hat 7th Ave & East Village, Aura 1 & 2, The Metropolitan ..... all have units available. I am not so sure the same market conditions exist today particularly with the uncertainty of the pandemic.
Who really knows what will happen as the uncertainty is off the charts with COVID impacts and we are in truly wild economic times - but all data points to Calgary's population continuing to grow, with new household formation (i.e. a single or couple that resides in their own place) trending slightly higher than population growth. This is true for all Canadian cities, Calgary despite all the doom and gloom, remains in the faster growing cohort based on the most recent data available (spring 2020).

Canada as a whole - and Calgary a bit behind - has for decades trended towards smaller family sizes and increases in single-person households - exactly the markets supported by apartment living. As Calgary continues it's trend towards the Canadian average (less wealth, less growth, more stable), I would expect us to play catch up and see continued growth in that market. Combined with generational factors (either from less ownership preference or less ability to own due to economic realities of next generation of young adults) I don't see why construction won't continue as normal with the predictable short-run overbuilding, pause, market tightens, building cycle.

I mentioned this before, but Calgary would require some ~60,000 purpose-built rentals to hit the Canadian average for purpose built rentals as a portion of the housing stock of the 10 largest CMAs. And we are talking just the average - every city bigger than us is well above average in rentals. Structural, historic and regional differences will likely prevent us from ever reaching too close to our larger counterparts or the national average, however if only half the gap was closed (30,000 units), and half of purpose built rentals were built inner city, that's 15,000 units - so another whole Beltline worth.

In a supply and demand argument, I would more worried if I own a generic 1970 - 2010 house - Calgary has hundreds of thousands of these. Demographics and economic pressures are shifting away from this housing type, as it's the most expensive housing type to live in under pretty much any market conditions. They will always be someone to live in them of course, I'm predicting below long-run average growth in these household types.
 
Earlier this year, the rental vacancy rate was near 4%. If I recall, it was 1-2% during the boom times. As I stated above, this hardly points to a supply shortage of rental units ... particularly luxury rental as they are now calling them.
Location is important as well. Most of the purpose rental now under construction and in the years leading up, has been in the core. If there are fewer jobs downtown and more people working from home, will the demand for inner city apartments continue to increase?
 
Earlier this year, the rental vacancy rate was near 4%. If I recall, it was 1-2% during the boom times. As I stated above, this hardly points to a supply shortage of rental units ... particularly luxury rental as they are now calling them.
Location is important as well. Most of the purpose rental now under construction and in the years leading up, has been in the core. If there are fewer jobs downtown and more people working from home, will the demand for inner city apartments continue to increase?

As work becomes more remote and less tied to central offices, I expect to see both satellite offices of large companies, as well as individuals moving away from expensive cities (i.e. Toronto, Vancouver) towards smaller, cheaper ones. Some people will want to move from downtown Toronto to cottage country, but others will want to keep some of the big city vibe without the big city prices. Calgary has a good shot at capturing this market. Denver, Kansas City, and Boise have all benefited from this trend before us. It will take continued reimagining of the core towards a better place to live 24/7.
 

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