Housing construction on the rise in past year

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on January 25, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The provincial government recently announced that Alberta is setting historic records for housing construction based on the 2024 year-end data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The announcement indicates that as the population continues to grow, Alberta’s government recognizes the need for more housing options. That’s why the province has been clearing the way for more homes to be built faster to help Albertans find housing that meets their needs and budgets.
“Alberta had a remarkable year for housing, which goes to show that our plan to build more homes faster is working. I am looking forward to building on the successes of this past year as we look forward to 2025,” says Jason Nixon, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services.
In addition, the announcement states that Alberta’s government continues to support builders and encourage new residential housing construction by cutting red tape, incentivizing housing construction and supporting innovative strategies that speed up the home building process.
The announcement shows that Alberta led the country in housing starts per capita for 2024, with Lethbridge having a 194 per cent increase compared to 2023.
Bridget Mearns, Executive Officer of BILD Lethbridge cautions that the reason for such a big leap is because the numbers are only being compared to 2023.
“A 194 per cent increase sounds like a lot. And to be fair, 2024 was a positive year. It was above the 10-year average. But where that number really jumps it’s because it’s comparing it to 2023, which was the lowest number of housing starts we’ve seen in at least a decade,” says Mearns.
She says she expects a similar trend to take place in 2025 where housing starts continue to increase due to increasing population numbers due to multiple factors.
“We continue to see population growth due to inter-provincial migration. There is low inventory, which means we will need more housing as we have a growing population and there is a demand for housing,” says Mearns.
She says because there has been an improvement in interest rates and some wage growth, these are considered indicators that housing will, at the very least stay on the same level, or stay on this trend.
The provincial government’s announcement identifies that the homebuilding boom positively affects not only homebuyers, but renters as well. According to the latest National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation, Alberta was the province that experienced the largest year-over-year decline in asking rents in 2024.
“The province did see an increase of purpose-built rentals and we need to continue to see that. Lethbridge has an incredibly low vacancy rate,” says Mearns.
She explains the low vacancy rates makes it hard for residents to find rentals in the city and this in turn increases the cost of rent.
“The piece to new home builds is that the people that are buying new homes come out of the rental market, so if they can’t move out of the rental market, the demand remains high while the supply remains low,” says Mearns.

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