There’s lots of opportunities to talk to your candidates about their thoughts on the current work being done around the city, and ask questions about the issues that matter to you most. We commend the current administration for all their hard work in response to the housing crisis, namely in addressing housing supply, affordability, and non-market housing. We wanted to take a moment and highlight some of the positive work that’s already been set in motion over the past few years.

Supply

There has been a lot of investment and changes to increase housing supply- construction, new developments, and redevelopments are happening all around the city. Citywide rezoning, conversion of vacant office spaces, and new programs that incentivize the building of more housing have all been significant steps forward in increasing Calgary’s housing supply.

Rezoning

The City of Calgary recently implemented changes to it’s zoning bylaws to allow the construction of more housing options, like row houses, in areas formerly zoned exclusively for single-family homes. This change diversifies Calgary’s neighbourhoods, creates more housing options for low to middle income earners, and streamlined the rezoning application process. Previously, developers would have to wait up to two years for project approval, but with these new changes, projects are being significantly faster.

Conversion of Office Spaces

This incentive is supported by the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program. A program that offers funding to downtown property owners to help convert empty office space into residential units, post-secondary spaces, hotels, and other spaces that revitalize downtown.

To tackle the housing crisis, we need as much space as we can get. Before the pandemic, Calgary already had the highest rate of commercial vacancies in Canada, with a downturn in the oil and gas market being the main driving force. [1] The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the issues, with social distancing and work from home policies coming into place as Canada attempted to manage the impacts of the pandemic. In 2025, office vacancy rates in Calgary sit around 30%

As of August 13th, 2025, a total of 21 office projects have been approved through the Downtown Office Conversion Programs, creating 2,628 new residential units for Calgarians in the downtown area.

Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF)

The Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) was announced in March 2023 to support municipalities by building 100,000 new homes by October 2026. In July 2025, the City of Calgary announced that it has exceeded the HAF housing supply growth target more than a year in advance! [2] As a result of the quick turnaround, CMHC awarded the city of Calgary an additional $22.8 million in top-up funding. The top-up funding along with previous funding will go towards supporting two additional initiatives: The Backyard Suites and Accessory Dwellings Program, and the Downtown Complete Community Housing Program.

The HAF also supports transit-oriented developments, a much-needed option to add to the housing supply. Transit-oriented developments mean building more housing, stores and services near train or bus stations. This is crucial for low-income households, particularly those without access to a vehicle, making it easier for them to access their workplaces, schools, among other services.

Downtown Density Bonusing Offset Program

An incentive created by the city to help build more homes in the downtown area; the program will offset the bonusing costs for eligible projects with the goal of reducing construction costs and providing more high-density residential projects.

The Density Bonusing Offset Program allows developers to add extra floors to existing properties in exchange for giving back to the community. Giving back to the community can mean investing in public spaces, donating to a community fund, or creating affordable housing. A fantastic incentive that combines an increase in housing with a focus on affordable housing, preserving heritage, and improving the surrounding community.

The program has been paused as of August 2025 due to a substantial amount of interest. [3]

Guide for Small Scale Housing

When big changes, like rezoning, come into play, effective communication from the city is crucial for a smooth transition for developers and builders. The City of Calgary is coming out with its guide for small scale housing in fall 2025, providing a resource for the thoughtful design of rowhouses, townhouses, and semidetached homes as more housing is being introduced to our neighbourhoods.

 

Affordability

With nearly 1 in 5 households in Calgary classified as unable to afford their housing, affordability is at the forefront of issues that need to be addressed. There’s been a number of new programs and changes made to address affordability in recent years that we wanted to highlight.

Mount Pleasant Mixed-Income Housing Development

A fantastic recent project to keep an eye on is the mixed-income housing development in Mount Pleasant, built on the former site of the St. Joseph School. This development is expected to house up to 45 residents under a mixed-income model. [4]

The mixed-income model offers a financially sustainable way to provide affordable housing; by using the below market rents to help cover more deeply affordable units and maintenance costs, mixed-income housing can reduce or even eliminate the need for further operating funding from the government.

Affordable Housing Partnership Program

The Mount Pleasant development is a part of the Government of Alberta’s Affordable Housing Partnership program. This program looks to bring together partners from the public, private, and non-profit sectors to create more affordable housing in the areas that it’s needed most.

Applications closed on January 31st with many new affordable housing units on the way. For eligible projects, the government was offering a contribution of up to 1/3 of the total eligible project costs through a variety of different avenues such as capital grants, land/buildings, and the transfer or lease of government owned assets.

The budget for this program is $655 million over 3 years, a $250 million increase from previous years. [5]

GST Relief for first-time home buyers

On May, 27, 2025, the government introduced a new GST rebate for first-time home buyers on new homes valued up to $1.5 million. As a result, first-time home buyers will be able to save up to $50,000 on a new home. To be eligible for the rebate you must either buy a new home from a builder, build or hire someone to build a home, or buy shares of a co-operative housing corporation. [6]

This change makes home ownership just that much more affordable for Canadians, freeing up rental properties for those that need them, as more Canadians look to buy homes.

Housing Incentive Program

The City of Calgary’s Housing Incentive Program (HIP) is only available to non-profit organizations for affordable housing projects, including both affordable rentals and affordable homeownership projects. This grant provides up to $50,000 toward pre-development activities and a rebate on eligible city development fees. [7]

Increased Investment in Affordable Housing

Included in Alberta’s 2025 budget is a large $23 million increase in the budget for social, specialized, affordable housing, and rental assistance.

Non-Market Housing

There are many in core housing need that are on low or fixed incomes, or require long-term supports to remain stably housed. For these populations, market housing may not be feasible. Non-market housing fills that gap, providing much needed housing options like affordable, transitional, or supportive housing.

Build Canada Homes

A new update on the government’s response to the housing crisis is ‘Build Canada Homes’, a new federal agency with the mission of building more affordable homes, financing affordable homes, and catalyzing a new housing industry. Build Canada Homes will focus primarily on non-market housing to support a mix of income needs, including supportive and transitional housing.

On top of a focus on non-market housing, Build Canada Homes will work towards creating the conditions for a non-market housing sector that can scale with new and innovative partnerships to reduce reliance on government subsidies, and to generate long-term demand for Canadian factory-built housing to allow the industry to scale and for the cost and time of home construction to go down. [8]

Non-Market Land Disposition Program & Policy

The City of Calgary has a non-market land disposition program, where they specifically reserve plots of land for non-profits to build more affordable housing in Calgary. Most recently, in January this year, the fourth land sale was announced- five pieces of land were sold to four non-profit housing agencies; this land sale is expected to enable the development of almost 400 new affordable homes for Calgarians.

The Non-Market Housing Land Disposition Policy was implemented in 2019 and revisited in 2023 to include non-surplus land. This action reduced competition for land by taking private developers out of the equation, allowing for the sale directly to non-profits for below market rates. Furthermore, the policy allows for city administration to approve projects that meet eligibility criteria instead of having to go through city council each time, thereby creating more structured timelines and speeding up approval times.

Property Tax Exemptions for Non-Profit Non-Market Housing Providers

In January 2025, city council approved a bylaw creating new property tax exemptions for non-market properties held by non-profit organizations. This program is specifically focused on providing monetary relief for non-market housing providers, so if a property contains units that are above the affordable housing threshold- those units will be taxed normally. [9]

 

Check out the rest of the content on our Vote Housing page (https://alphahousecalgary.com/votehousing ), where we have a lot of great information and commentary about housing in Calgary

 

[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-the-void-in-calgary-how-office-towers-emptied-in-a-once-bustling/

[2] https://newsroom.calgary.ca/calgary-surpasses-housing-supply-growth-targets-ahead-of-schedule/

[3] https://www.calgary.ca/development/downtown-density-bonusing-offset-program.html

[4] https://newsroom.calgary.ca/calgary-housing-breaks-ground-on-landmark-mount-pleasant-affordable-housing-project/

[5] https://enoughforall.ca/articles/analyzing-the-2025-alberta-budget

[6] https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/05/gst-relief-for-first-time-home-buyers-on-new-homes-valued-up-to-15-million.html

[7] https://www.calgary.ca/communities/housing-in-calgary/housing-development-funding-support/affordable-housing-incentive.html

[8] https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/bch-mc/about-apropos-eng.html

[9] https://www.calgary.ca/property-owners/taxes/exemptions/non-profit-exemptions.html