Emerging Trends in Real Estate is an annual real estate report published jointly by PwC (Price, Waterhouse and Cooper) and the Urban Land Insitute (ULI).
The report is compiled by inviting real estate watchers and investors from more than 150 countries, including 63 respondents from Canada, to participate in a survey and interviews to identify the trends and forecasts in real estate, including investment and development trends, real estate finance and capital markets, in North America.
Based on responses, the new report, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2025, shines a light on the City of Calgary as being a rising star in the real estate investment universe.
“The city’s strength is evident in this year’s survey, in which Calgary ranked No. 1 for overall real estate prospects in 2025,” says the report adding, “In addition to a diversifying economy supported by a growing technology sector, the city is seeing strong population growth as large numbers of people move to Calgary from across the country and around the world.”
The Calgary Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) grew by almost 96,000 people last year, according to Statistics Canada.
Roughly one-third of Calgary’s population growth came from interprovincial migration, with more Canadians from other parts of the country coming to Calgary than people leaving Calgary for other parts of the country.
“With the influx of people to Calgary, interviewees broadly agreed that the single-family and multi-family residential segments present the most opportunity (for investment)”, reads the report.
Housing starts in the city hit 24,369 homes in 2024, the third record year in a row.
“Calgary had the fastest growing residential construction costs of major Canadian cities, in the second quarter of 2024, according to Statistics Canada, but rising rents and sales prices have helped interviewees maintain their margins,” says the report.
One of Calgary’s big draws was better housing affordability compared to cities such as Toronto and vancouver.
“Housing affordability has been a big draw for people from other parts of Canada, but as demand increases, some worry this may change,” says the report. “Alberta doesn’t have rent control and rental vacancies are low.”
“As a result, average rents are projected to rise by 3.4% in 2025, according to CMHC. Still, the forecasted average rent of $1,859 for a two-bedroom apartment remains below cities like Vancouver ($2,380) and Toronto ($2,120).”
Meanwhile, the Conference Board of Canada expects real gross domestic product growth to rise to 2.5% in 2025 from 1.1% in 2024.
One area where the real estate market in Calgary is the downtown core.
“The vacancy rate for downtown office space was 30.3% in the second quarter of 2024, which mostly reflects an ongoing oversupply in the Calgary market that predates the work-from-home trend that took hold in 2020,” says the report.
In an attempt to ease the downtown vacancy rate, the City of Calgary introduced a program to support projects converting office space into residences, hotels and academic spaces.
“In a news release in September, the City of Calgary announced $52.5 million in additional funding for the program, through which developers can receive up to $75 per square foot for office-to-residential conversion projects,” says the report. “The city noted it had approved 11 conversions under the program, with the first completed project opening in April 2024 with 112 rental units.”
“The industrial market is healthy but not as strong as last year,”adds the report. “The city had an industrial vacancy of 3.3% in the second quarter of 2024. At least one interviewee expects to see healthy demand as Calgary ‘will continue to be the distribution hub for western Canada.’”
With a fourth year in a row of record housing starts anticipated in 2025, Calgary is expected to maintain its pace of development.
“The city’s initiatives to convert office spaces and support multi-family developments are expected to ease housing pressures, particularly for first-time buyers and renters,” says the