Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials HomeReal EstateNew home construction in Calgary, Edmonton is slipping. Here's why that might be a good thingEconomist says the slowdown in new home construction is in line with lower population growthLast updated 3 hours ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Homes in a new community in northeast Calgary on Jan. 21, 2026. Housing starts in Edmonton and Calgary are down 21 per cent this year over last year. Gavin Young/PostmediaWhile developers in Alberta’s major cities are building fewer homes than last year, one homebuilder says the market still hasn’t caught up with demand brought on by waves of newcomers to the province.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorOver the past several years, Alberta has experienced extraordinary population growth due to both immigration and interprovincial migration. Katrina Rowe, president of communities at Cantiro Homes, says developers simply couldn’t build fast enough to meet demand.“There definitely was a shortfall,” Rowe said in an interview. “We’re continuing to address that, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when we’ll hit a balance.SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE: FP West: Energy Insider brings you behind the oilpatch’s closed doors with exclusive insights from insiders every Wednesday morning.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of FP West: Energy Insider will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again“I think we’re getting closer and closer to satisfying the built-up need,” she said.In Calgary and Edmonton, where the Alberta-based developer builds over 500 homes per year, fewer homes got underway in the first six months of this year than in the previous year, when the province was smashing records. Construction crews work on row houses near Granville Drive and Glastonbury Blvd., in west Edmonton, on Feb. 13, 2026. David Bloom/PostmediaThe industry started building 22,000 homes in Alberta over the first six months of the year, down 21 per cent from a year earlier, according to data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The homebuilding industry across the country has slowed, due in part to weak demand, but activity in Alberta remains relatively strong.“A slight slowdown in growth is a good thing,” Rowe said. “But we don’t want it to stop entirely either.”Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist of Alberta-based Servus Credit Union, said the slowdown in new home construction is in line with lower population growth.“With population growth slowing meaningfully, we don’t need the same pace of supply coming on to the market,” St-Arnaud said.This year’s construction so far puts the province on track to start pouring concrete for 47,000 homes by the end of the year, before potentially declining further to 35,000 by 2027, according to ATB Economics.Despite the slower pace of building this year, the number of homes that started in the first six months of the year is still the third highest the province has seen in two decades, according to ATB.St-Arnaud said the stabilization of new home construction in the province raises questions for builders in the coming years.“You start to wonder: Are we now at a more kind of a new steady state?” St-Arnaud posed.The record-breaking building numbers in 2025 were “way too strong,” and some degree of fall-off was expected, according to St-Arnaud.For builders like Rowe, having balance might be a good thing.“We’d love to see a bit more stability in Canada’s immigration instead of having a ton of immigration and then turning it off completely,” Rowe said.“Change and growth can be hard when it happens at the speed at which it’s happened over the last few years,” she said. “But growth is still important to our economy, and our major cities in the province need to continue growing and growing responsibly.” Katrina Rowe, president of communities at Cantiro Homes, in Edmonton on March 4, 2025. She said a slowdown for new construction is a good thing, but there should not be a stop. David Bloom/PostmediaCanada’s record-breaking growth in the wake of the pandemic was driven in part by federal government policies that allowed more people into the country on student visas or as temporary foreign workers. Ottawa was trying to resolve pandemic-era labour shortages, but when it opened the floodgates, many other challenges emerged, including a sharp rise in housing demand.The federal government later pulled the plug on the strategy by capping the number of non-permanent residents allowed into the country as public opinion toward immigration soured amid rising housing prices and cost-of-living concerns.While the country’s population has declined over the last three quarters, Alberta’s has continued to grow — albeit more slowly than during the post-pandemic boom.“The last few years have been incredibly busy,” Rowe said, adding she expects demand for new builds to continue, but more slowly, through this year and beyond.“The boom and bust that Alberta is known for isn’t the best for residents or for business people, builders, or developers,” she said. “Some stability and consistency would be nice.”Bill Black, chief executive of the Calgary Construction Association, said the “white knuckle” pace of construction was not sustainable in the long term.“Builders are like farmers,” Black said. “It’s either raining too much or not raining enough. It’s never just the perfect amount of precipitation.”Still, builders he’s spoken to hold a mixed bag of views on the pace of new construction.“It depends on which homebuilder you speak to, as to whether they are gloomy or shrugging it off,” Black said. “Some of them are like, we kind of needed it to back off a little bit.” Bill Black, president & CEO of Calgary Construction Association.Rowe said that affordability remains a selling point, particularly in the Edmonton region, where Cantiro’s townhouses under $500,000 often sell the fastest.“There’s starting to be a lot more supply of that product, and so demand is moderating a little bit,” Rowe said, adding that Calgary has seen more people opting for single-family homes.Mark Parsons, chief economist at ATB Financial, said the slowing housing starts could be a good thing.“It’s slowed, but from a very high level, unsustainably high level,” Parsons said. “It’s important that it has because we’ve already seen prices correct a little bit and rents fall.“It’s a really good news story that the housing supply is catching up to the population,” he said.FP West: Energy Insider brings you behind the closed doors of the oilpatch, with exclusive insights from insiders every Wednesday morning. 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