Calgary's home construction slowing — but builders say supply still can't catch demand

Alberta's home construction pace is slowing, but builders say the province still hasn't caught up with demand from years of newcomers arriving through immigration and interprovincial migration.

Housing starts in Alberta dropped to 22,000 in the first six months of 2026, down 21% from the same period last year, according to data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Despite the decline, the province remains on track for roughly 47,000 housing starts by year-end, before potentially falling further to 35,000 by 2027, according to ATB Economics. Even so, this year's pace marks the third-highest number of starts the province has recorded in two decades.

Katrina Rowe, president of communities at Cantiro Homes — a builder that starts over 500 homes annually in Calgary and Edmonton — said a slowdown is healthy. "A slight slowdown in growth is a good thing," Rowe said. "But we don't want it to stop entirely either." She noted that after years of extraordinary demand, developers are finally getting closer to meeting the built-up need, though pinpointing exactly when supply and demand balance remains difficult.

Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at Alberta-based Servus Credit Union, attributed the slowdown to easing population growth. "With population growth slowing meaningfully, we don't need the same pace of supply coming on to the market," he said. The stabilization raises questions for builders about what the new normal will look like going forward.

Rowe acknowledged the challenge of volatile immigration policy. "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," she said. "Change and growth can be hard when it happens at the speed at which it's happened over the last few years. But growth is still important to our economy, and our major cities in the province need to continue growing and growing responsibly."