A water truck sprays down a now-cleared lot at the corner of Dunmore Road and Southview Drive where developers are building a large apartment block.--News Photo Collin Gallant
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With Medicine Hat’s homebuilding sector seemingly stuck in the midst of a housing crisis, City Hall may begin promoting lots and building opportunities to outside construction firms.
That is one potential avenue explored in a proposed draft of a new strategy for the office and land development company, which was outlined at a council energy and land division committee meeting.
That will be reviewed by council later this month, and include a survey of available land throughout the city and potentially grant programs to bolster activity.
It comes after the city office engaged national real estate firm Colliers to provide a market appraisal, which found that at the current low growth rate Medicine Hat would be 900 units short by 2046. Commercial square footage is currently oversupplied, but “niche opportunities” remain, including the need for another retail “power centre” at some point. Most future needs could be met with redevelopment projects, similar to light industrial property, while large industrial need is hard to predict.
“The is a (residential) modest gap,” said Jon Sookechef, a special project analyst in the division. “(The strategy) has to ask how do you design infill supporting policies when the market demand is for single-family units, opposed to row houses and development that is a little more dense.”
The city has struggled to key affordable housing development while public complaints about rising rent and lack of options dominated the conversation.
At the same time, construction activity remains even, but low compared to local historical trend and very low compared to other Alberta cities.
City councillors have began to note the disparity,
“We keep saying there’s a shortage, but every day I walk by vacant land and wonder why no one is building,” asked Coun. Shila Sharps.
“We’re exploring that with local builders who are willing to take on (multi-family projects) and find out why or why not,” said real estate official Randi Buchner. “There are challenges
In 2024, the city’s planning office issued permits for 28 single detached houses, 22 semi-detached houses and 99 multi-family units, most relating to one major project now underway on Dunmore road.
The market is facing a shortage of relatively modest $400,000 price range (the average resale price in 2024 was $396,000), but few starts are being recorded in the city at all, especially compared to other cities in Alberta.
Home builders have blamed inflation, which can be more acute in construction, as well as interest rates and consumer confidence for driving up prices to the point where building “starter” homes requires a budget once considered upper tier.
“The question is whether there is something we can do to make some projects move more quickly,” said Coun. Darren Hirsch, adding that the city has the ability to leverage some aspects, but needs to conservatively plan for growth. “It’s an interesting time.”
Sookecheff also said macro-economics play a large factor.
“Any time there is uncertainty, people will wait to see how it plays out,” he said.
Officials expect 150 private lots to come on the market this summer from the private sector, but also say they will re-examine business cases for city-owned phases in the north end, where few bare lots are available.
The office would also evaluate both public and private land opportunities within city limits, looking for “under utilized” land that could bolster the overall goal of keying redevelopment in mature communities.
In the mid-2010s, the city’s land development wing began tracking its portion of lots available i the overall local market to assuage private sector developers who argued their new subdivisions were seeing low uptake.
The city now has all but one lot under contract in the Saamis Phase 7 community, which had notoriously low interest in the late 2010s and became a lightning rod for developers promoted their larger estate-style lots.
