Page 30 - 01-Jan-Feb-2024

Will Our
BOOm
make us GO Bust?
Alberta is growing. Edmonton is growing.
But, can our already over-stressed housing market keep up?
alberta is growing, fast. When the Legislature began its autumn session, the Throne Speech suggested this province could have as many as 10 mil-
lion residents by the year 2050.
That’s right, Alberta’s government is
anticipating that we could more than double in population in the space of just a quarter century.
Throne Speeches are notoriously opti- mistic, and the government didn’t provide a source for that 10 million figure. But there’s no denying Alberta’s undergoing historic growth, and we’re already in the midst of a national housing crunch. With
by Steven Sandor
so many more residents expected, how do we expect Edmonton to keep pace yet still maintain its biggest advantage of all — the fact that houses here are more affordable than they are in other parts of the country?
“Edmonton remains the most afford-
able city out of the big five major cities in Canada,” says Emmett Hartfield, principal at Intelligence House, a real-estate marketing and research firm. “The new zoning bylaws implemented by the City of Edmonton to al- low for higher density in any neighbourhood will hopefully keep affordability issues away.
“But issues we are seeing right now in Calgary and in Edmonton in some sense
are mass interprovincial migration
numbers at a rapid pace due to afford- ability problems in Ontario and B.C. This might continue for many years and could continue to drive housing pricing upwards in Edmonton and Alberta, as demand outpaces supply.”
According to those who build the houses, the biggest threat to Edmonton’s affordability advantage is red tape. “Don’t fix what is not broken,” warns Adil Kodian, executive vice president of the Rohit Group of Companies.
He says Edmonton can learn from two Canadian cities that are very close to it
in size — Calgary and Ottawa. Both of those cities have approved plans that curb
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