Rental costs in Edmonton rose 11.3 per cent from June 2022 to June 2023, but the city still offers the most affordable housing out of any major city, according to data from Rentals.ca, a large online real estate network.
Prices are rising but it is still the most affordable… Not shocking.
The most shocking thing about moving to alberta was discovering that there’s no rental increase cap.
I’m not renting now, but I imagine a whole bunch of people who snagged a good deal are going to find out in a year when their rent is suddenly bumped up to market rates.
Albertan cities have been very good about planning for future supply. Former Calgary mayor Nenshi explicitly zoned for future housing, which cities like Toronto and Vancouver refuse to do.
Don’t Albertan cities simply have more space to sprawl onto? Vancouver is bounded by the river, by mountains, by the other river, by the US border, by the ocean…
It’s a bit of a struggle for Vancouver to sprawl.
Vancouver geography is not that constrained. Land use is just very bad. The classic Vancouver skyline is a surprisingly small area. It’s surrounded by SFH suburbs. The Lower Mainland has tons of strip malls and parking lots due to car culture. It’s not a lack of land, it’s a bad use of land.
- BC Lower mainland: 36,000 km^2. Population 3 million.
- Netherlands: 41,500 km^2. Population 17 million.
- Belgium: 30,500 km^2. Population 11.7 million.
- Switzerland: 41,250 km^2. Population 8.7 million.
These countries are not Hong Kong. They have nature, a mix of big cities and small towns, and lots of low density areas. Switzerland is a famously mountainous region with lots of untouched nature and rural areas.
Compared to Calgary?
ah, I see what you mean now. Yes, Vancouver is MUCH more dense than Calgary. But Calgary isn’t just sprawling, they also deliberately planned for more housing supply throughout the city, including more density. Vancouver and the LM have not implemented such a plan.