Home resales in Calgary's booming real estate market have surged to the highest level of any major metropolitan area in the country, according to the latest data from the Bank of Canada.
The latest statistics show that 6.5 per cent of homes sold in Greater Calgary were resold within 12 months.
This is the highest level among major cities since at least 2014, according to data published by the bank.
The figures come as no surprise to Jason Schmilko, a Calgary-based real estate agent who specializes in helping clients buy homes and resell them at a profit.
When asked what the current state of the real estate resale market is like, he sums it up in one word: “Madness.”
“It's a tough situation right now,” Schmilko said.
He started flipping houses himself about 20 years ago and would often renovate properties before flipping them, but he says that's no longer necessary given the recent surge in demand and prices.
“We have clients who buy a property and rent it for a few years with the intention of doing something with it. [to renovate them]”And now they're realizing that maybe they don't need to do anything, they can just sell it and make a decent profit,” he said.
Prices have increased by double digits across many sectors of the city's housing market over the past year, according to the Calgary Association of Realtors' latest monthly report.
If you examine real estate listings and land title records going back several years, it's not hard to find examples of significant price increases in many parts of Calgary.
For example, a bungalow in southeast Acadia that sold in January 2022 for $432,500 was just resold earlier this month for $640,000 — a 48% increase in just over two years.
In northwest Montgomery, a bungalow sold for $325,000 in January 2020. A similar bungalow next door sold for $605,000 in January 2024, an 86% increase in four years.
Out-of-town buyers
Nadine Faure is a Calgary real estate agent who also serves investors from other provinces looking to buy property in the city.
She says demand for real estate in Calgary has skyrocketed recently, with a lack of matching supply.
As a result, there is a long queue of buyers ready to pay “top price” for homes, making resales much easier in the city, she said.
“If there are 30 buyers for every property that goes on the market and people are paying an exorbitant amount, you can just leave it for a few months without doing any work and resell it for a profit,” Fall said.
While some of her clients are starting to balk at asking prices at the higher end of the market, she says prices, especially at the lower end of the condominium market, are still very attractive to prospective buyers accustomed to Vancouver or Toronto price ranges.
“For example, in Calgary right now, properties under $400,000 are receiving an incredibly high number of competitive bids,” she said.
“A one-bedroom condo can sell in one day for $30,000 over the asking price.”
Other buyers are feeling the squeeze too
But for local non-investor buyers, recent trends are making navigating Calgary's real estate market difficult.
Max Maxwell, 38, said he and his partner got married last summer and started apartment hunting together, but quickly became “disheartened” as property after property sold.
“It was impossible to even look at the property,” he says. “We literally toured it 11 times when it first came on the market, and it sold out before we knew it, so it was all for nothing.”
They took advantage of a temporary lull in activity over the Christmas holidays to finally make the purchase.
“We happened to tour the property three days before Christmas,” he says, “so we had six offers on the first day, but only one competing.”
Duncan Stark had planned to buy a house in Calgary later this year, but was watching the market with some anxiety.
Stark said he's not a typical first-time buyer: He's in his 50s and has lived in rented accommodation his whole life after years of work moving him to different cities in several countries, but he plans to buy a home with cash and no mortgage.
He last lived in Victoria, British Columbia, but found the real estate prices there too high and decided to move back to Calgary as a result.
But he's now “very concerned” about price trends here.
“That might discourage me altogether. [from buying]”If it's really tough, well, I'm just going to wait. If the market is down, I'm not going to be desperate to buy,” he said.
Maxwell considers himself lucky to have been able to buy a home in Calgary recently – he and his partner also saved up and bought it with cash – but he says many people his age and younger struggle to buy a home in the current market.
“That means there's a whole generation missing out on what were milestone events for many of us.”