Calgary approves five new communities as house sale prices jump

It’s no secret urban sprawl is controversial at city hall, and on Tuesday five new communities were approved, potentially affecting the real estate market in the city.

As the council approved the new communities, with a potential three more on top of that, we learn about a minimum income jump of 18 per cent for home buying in the city.

So what will more sprawl do for the real estate market?

“More new homes means tougher on resale [and] people will opt for new homes quite often when given the choice. I think it’s going to increase the amount of supply, so the average home buyer is going to have more to select from with more supply from builders. With them doing that, resale pricing then drops,” said Chris Audette, a realtor with Remax First.

One councilor says it’s not the right time to continue approving new builds.

Three will go in the southeast and two in the northwest.

Ward 3 councilor Jasmine Mian is for the new communities because she says our growing population needs a growing housing market.

“The challenge that we have before us is we have in the next four years is about the size of the city of Lethbridge worth [of a] population that will be coming to Calgary which is great for the economy, great for the city, but those people have to have somewhere to live,” said Mian.


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But the debate about sprawl lives on at City Hall, ward 8 councilor Courtney Walcott voted no on the new communities Tuesday. He says greenlighting new communities just before the climate strategy is implemented into the budget is out of step.

“To kind of continue to expand in any way while we’re on the cusp of new policy changes that’s going to shift how we grow – I feel like it’s just not the right time when we are doing this right now, especially with climate, especially with how we’re viewing transit and transportation,” said Walcott.

Walcott says we should grow up, not out.

“If every community just gets 20 per cent more people – maybe that’s a couple of duplexes where there are no duplexes, maybe you have some fourplexes just tucked away throughout the entire city,” said Walcott.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek also voted no on the new communities and wants to change the process in which they’re approved moving forward to make it less political.

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