Edmonton Real Estate Market

[ChazYEG]

I don't want to say that we're doing "good", but that chart really does put the office vacancy rate into perspective and it's a bit comforting that bigger cities like Houston and Atlanta are dealing with the same issue.

That Calgary number is wild. I would have thought we were a lot closer in vacancy but not that different. The linked PDF has Calgary's downtown inventory at over 40 million Square feet vs our 16; having a third of their downtown empty is brutal.

They have basically our whole inventory in empty space! It's wild!

I think this is an opportunity for Edmonton to focus on boosting residential and mixed use developments, that will be far more sustainable and add to vibrancy in the long term.

If I had to put my bets on, I'll say that in some 20-25 years our downtown will be far more vibrant and interesting than Calgary's. Maybe not a skyline as tall and impressive, from a distance, but much better street life.

 

[kcantor]

^
noting of course that still leaves calgary with 27 million square feet of occupied downtown which is still 2.25 times our 12 million…

 

[Oilers99]

I forgot the exact statistic but it was something like between 2012-2015 downtown Calgary class A doubled in supply because of all the buildings that we’re approved and finished during the boom.

 

[occidentalcapital]

Dynamite time?

 

[Avenuer]

I forgot the exact statistic but it was something like between 2012-2015 downtown Calgary class A doubled in supply because of all the buildings that we’re approved and finished during the boom.

Yup, the Bow, Brookfield Place, Eighth Avenue Place II, City Centre Office, Eighth Avenue Place I (2011 finish)...

 

[David A]

They have basically our whole inventory in empty space! It's wild!

I think this is an opportunity for Edmonton to focus on boosting residential and mixed use developments, that will be far more sustainable and add to vibrancy in the long term.

If I had to put my bets on, I'll say that in some 20-25 years our downtown will be far more vibrant and interesting than Calgary's. Maybe not a skyline as tall and impressive, from a distance, but much better street life.

Since the height restrictions related to the old airport were lifted, our skyline has become more interesting with the addition of several taller buildings to the existing mix. There are of course more tall buildings in Calgary, as they didn't have such height restrictions for all those years, but I would say their skyline is more monolithic than interesting as a lot of those tall buildings are a similar height.

 

[David A]

^
noting of course that still leaves calgary with 27 million square feet of occupied downtown which is still 2.25 times our 12 million…

It seems to me that ratio has been like that for quite a while. The problem is some companies want to cover Alberta from one city and for them Edmonton seems an afterthought.

I'm surprised their Edmonton customers put up with it as much as they do.

 

[ChazYEG]

Since the height restrictions related to the old airport were lifted, our skyline has become more interesting with the addition of several taller buildings to the existing mix. There are of course more tall buildings in Calgary, as they didn't have such height restrictions for all those years, but I would say their skyline is more monolithic than interesting as a lot of those tall buildings are a similar height.

I Quite like some perspective of their skyline, but you're not wrong. I think ours will end up more interesting, as there's more variation on height/built form, and we'll add more residential than office towers, meaning less glass boxes and, as the market matures, more interesting and bolder designs. It'll be shorter, though, which is kind of sad, but is also likely to result in the most important thing of all: better street level interactions.
Calgary looks fantastic from afar, but is quite boring and not so inviting from street level, with the usually very imposing main lobbies, very few CRUs and barely any residential. If we could strike a balance between Vancouver (great street level) and Calgary (impressive and tall from afar), I'll be happy.

 

[IanO]

The latest projections for Edmonton’s three community revitalization levy (CRL) areas over the full 20-year terms are a $42-million surplus for the Downtown CRL, a $24.3-million deficit for the Quarters CRL, and an $11.8-million deficit for the Belvedere CRL. In a separate report, administration recommends against amending the Downtown CRL to fund public washrooms or affordable housing projects, though it does suggest that public washrooms could be built as part of existing park projects.

2023 Community Revitalization Levy Update - Downtown, The Quarters Downtown, Belvedere - Executive Committee - March 22, 2023

pub-edmonton.escribemeetings.com

 

[Airboy]

House on my street took 4 days to sell. $440,000.00 slightly above asking. This was also the smallest house on my street. So it is in keeping with the current time to sell. Prices are in the mid 400s to just about 600,000. Not bad for house built in the 70s. Fastest sale was last year. Sign went up and was sold by the afternoon.

 

[Avenuer]

House on my street took 4 days to sell. $440,000.00 slightly above asking. This was also the smallest house on my street. So it is in keeping with the current time to sell. Prices are in the mid 400s to just about 600,000. Not bad for house built in the 70s. Fastest sale was last year. Sign went up and was sold by the afternoon.

'Alberta is Calling'!

 

[IanO]

I wonder if it is time for a 3rd party audit of the Quarters CRL.

 

[David A]

I wonder if it is time for a 3rd party audit of the Quarters CRL.

Not much development in this area to raise revenue from. I wonder if this area will end up having more of the affordable housing downtown that was mentioned?

 

[archited]

I wonder if it is time for a 3rd party audit of the Quarters CRL.

L-o-o-o-o-ng past due.

 

[David A]

On a more positive note and perhaps more on topic here, I just saw this article. I think a good point is that perhaps higher interest rates are really not that negative for a fairly affordable market such as ours.

https://edmontonjournal.com/life/ho...es-a-strong-case-for-buying-sooner-than-later