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I'm not one who is prone to envy of other places or feels inferiority a great deal. Just blindly copying another city may not be the best idea.

We need to figure out what works best for Edmonton and I think given that we do not have a such a concentration of corporate offices in our downtown the mix of our housing will be a bit different.

Yes, we will have some tall towers, but there is also room here for other things too.
 
Attended the Calgary Real Estate forum today.

Some takeaways that Edmonton should be aware of:

- a general shift away from concrete to 6 storey stick-framed due to a cost delta of $75-100/sqft.

- rents need to be $10-20% higher in Calgary to really see a significant addition to supply -> this would translate into 30-40% higher rates in Edmonton. They are suggesting a $4/sqft rent... Edmonton is at $2.50-2.75.

- Expect to see more REITs and larger players in Alberta soon when it comes to purpose-built rental product.

- MANY are leery of office->residential conversions.

- Construction costs have risen 30-35% year over year.
 
IanO said:
Attended the Calgary Real Estate forum today.

Some takeaways that Edmonton should be aware of:

- a general shift away from concrete to 6 storey stick-framed due to a cost delta of $75-100/sqft.

- rents need to be $10-20% higher in Calgary to really see a significant addition to supply -> this would translate into 30-40% higher rates in Edmonton. They are suggesting a $4/sqft rent... Edmonton is at $2.50-2.75.

- Expect to see more REITs and larger players in Alberta soon when it comes to purpose-built rental product.

- MANY are leery of office->residential conversions.

- Construction costs have risen 30-35% year over year.
Click to expand...
Was this meant more for Calgary or was it mentioned as something that would happen in both major cities?
 
IanO said:
Attended the Calgary Real Estate forum today.

Some takeaways that Edmonton should be aware of:

- a general shift away from concrete to 6 storey stick-framed due to a cost delta of $75-100/sqft.

- rents need to be $10-20% higher in Calgary to really see a significant addition to supply -> this would translate into 30-40% higher rates in Edmonton. They are suggesting a $4/sqft rent... Edmonton is at $2.50-2.75.

- Expect to see more REITs and larger players in Alberta soon when it comes to purpose-built rental product.

- MANY are leery of office->residential conversions.

- Construction costs have risen 30-35% year over year.
Click to expand...
Do we want $3500 for 2bdrms though? Like I want to see Development explode as much as the next person. But I also want my friends and kids to be able to afford to live in this city.
 
thommyjo said:
Do we want $3500 for 2bdrms though? Like I want to see Development explode as much as the next person. But I also want my friends and kids to be able to afford to live in this city.
Click to expand...

A balance to be struck and some can get efficient, streamlined and find a middle ground, but the reality is that rents in Edmonton are well below where they need to be to really see much in terms of significant infill projects and that corresponds to what we are (not) seeing.

Given the record immigration and in-migration, there should be a dozen cranes in the sky right now.
 
thommyjo said:
Do we want $3500 for 2bdrms though? Like I want to see Development explode as much as the next person. But I also want my friends and kids to be able to afford to live in this city.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Did they identify what is driving construction cost increases, @IanO ? Certainly nobody I know in the trades is making 30-35% higher wage vs last year (most have been making the virtually the same money or LESS since 2014...). Are materials really up 35%+? If so, why?

Concerningly, it makes a guy wonder what the end game is with the growing disconnect between construction costs vs market rents. Real wages continue to be virtually stagnant across the board. 30%+ higher rents would financially decimate a lot of folks here, like what continues to happen in other major metro areas. Is Canada just destined to be a wholly house poor nation?
 
There was not a breakdown, but anecdotally (at least here in Canmore), I can tell you that tenders were coming back 20-40pts high, with many projects having to go back to VE or for a rethink entirely.

Keep in mind that this would be for new product only, not across the board and actually could bring more supply to reduce rents in other buildings.
 
Yeah rents have reached eye watering levels across the country and they have really shot up in Edmonton as well. Just go visit the Edmonton subreddit and you're bound to run into a thread of people bitching about how expensive half decent rentals have gotten, even here.
 
Rents (generally) are a product of supply/demand, overhead/costs such as operations and maintenance and costs to cover your debt with a bit of profit.

Rents in Edmonton have certainly risen, but there continues to be a disconnect between rents and cost to deliver new product.
 
IanO said:
Attended the Calgary Real Estate forum today.

Some takeaways that Edmonton should be aware of:

- a general shift away from concrete to 6 storey stick-framed due to a cost delta of $75-100/sqft.

- rents need to be $10-20% higher in Calgary to really see a significant addition to supply -> this would translate into 30-40% higher rates in Edmonton. They are suggesting a $4/sqft rent... Edmonton is at $2.50-2.75.

- Expect to see more REITs and larger players in Alberta soon when it comes to purpose-built rental product.

- MANY are leery of office->residential conversions.

- Construction costs have risen 30-35% year over year.
Click to expand...
Some points from the real estate forum would have been helpful for Tim's article.

edmonton.taproot.news

Would building more supply slow Edmonton's rising home prices?

As Edmonton prepares to enter a municipal election period where growing housing prices are expected to be a central issue, Taproot spoke to experts with Community Housing Canada and the Collins Lab for Urban Excellence at the University of Alberta to determine if municipal officials need to...
edmonton.taproot.news edmonton.taproot.news
 
BASE said:
One of those wild stats. In first half of 2024 Edmonton saw the most home sales of any market in the country https://edmontonglobal.ca/news/edmonton-leads-in-housing-metrics/
Click to expand...
This is one of the main reasons we are not seeing more construction of multi family downtown and elsewhere right now, SFH prices here are still affordable compared to elsewhere.

Also, several years ago there were people leaving here and fairly high vacancy, which has come down a lot since, but again we are still in a better position than elsewhere.
 
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