The latest rental rate details from Rentals.ca and Urbanation have shown significant declines in the amount of rent that Calgarians have been paying, since this time last year.

In the latest February report, which covers data throughout January 2025, Calgary rental rates saw an overall decline of six per cent year-over-year, down to an average of $1,925.

For one-bedroom apartments, that rate was down to $1,600 per month, representing a 5.6 per cent decrease year-over-year, and the lowest monthly rate in almost two years.

The city also saw the largest decline nationwide for three-bedroom apartments, with a 8.7 per cent decrease year-over-year to $2,412 per month.

Giacomo Ladas, Associate Director of Communications for Rentals.ca said that the decreases have been a result of a collection of many different things.

“We have seen a lot more supply coming to the market. Throughout 2024 especially, we started to see a lot more supply coming to the market.”

He said other factors included population increases slowing down and changing preferences and willingness to spend by renters.

“I think what’s interesting to note about Calgary, it’s a very specific market where as early as the spring of 2024, Calgary was seeing double-digit annual rent increases. Then over the course of ’24 how quickly that changed,” Ladas said.

“That has to do with Calgary, pretty much more than any other place around Canada, bringing supply to the market a lot faster. They’re just a lot quicker to get projects done. They’re also doing a great job in office to residential conversions.

“But I think the second thing that’s happening in Alberta is, Alberta’s not really calling anymore. That was a huge campaign where a ton of demand was brought there through interprovincial migration. That started to slow down a little bit, so we started to see population growth kind of decrease a little bit, and that’s brought demand a little bit less in the city.”

Alberta is calling… for more units to be built

Statistics provided by the City of Calgary for 2024, showed that the pace of building housing in the city has been, in the city’s words, “booming.”

“Last year we issued the largest number of permits for townhouse, rowhouse and semi-detached units ever, as well as the most single detached home permits since 2006,” said Ulrik Seward, Chief Building Official for The City of Calgary, in a prepared media release.

“These numbers show that Calgary’s housing landscape is growing and changing, demonstrating the progress that industry and The City have made in the past year towards increasing the housing supply.”

For renters, those numbers included permits for 7,312 apartment units, which the city said was a 37 per cent increase over the five-year average.

Secondary suites were also up, with 3,787 new secondary suites and 4,748 suites added to the city’s registry during 2024.

“The increases in residential building permits are an early indicator that policies like citywide rezoning and programs like the Secondary Suite Incentive are helping us meet the objectives set out in Home is Here—the City of Calgary’s Housing Strategy,” said Reid Hendry, Chief Housing Officer for the City of Calgary.

Ladas said the rental rates are likely to continue for the short term as supply increases.

“I think it’s fair that you can suggest the rents are going to continue to decrease, at least for the months ahead. We’re starting to see some downside risks happening in the economy where people are just a little bit on edge,” he said.

“Typically, when people have less money, they’re less likely to pay these premium rents. We’re also combining that with international population inflows that are going down, and we’re still seeing multi-decade high apartment completions that should continue throughout 2025, and because of that, I think we could suggest that these rents are going to continue.”

Looking to the summer though, he said, was when the real test to see if the downtrend would continue.

“The summer is typically the busy rental season. It’s when demand is at its highest, and it’s when a lot more supply comes into the market. So, if rents continue to go down through the summer, that’s when we’re really looking at something unprecedented.”