In September 2026, the typical detached home in CREB's City Centre district was benchmarked at $981,300, up 0.72% from a year earlier. In the same district and the same month, the typical apartment condo was benchmarked at $297,900, down 8.08%. One district had prices moving in opposite directions. The difference comes down to who the competition is. A detached seller downtown is competing with other sellers. A condo seller is also competing with a leasing office down the block.
Most of the new homes opening in Downtown Calgary over the past two years have opened as rentals. A new rental building competes for the tenants that condo investors depend on. Once fewer investors are bidding, the people left at the table are the ones who plan to live in the unit, and they are negotiating in a market with almost six months of supply.
The same district, two different markets
CREB's City Centre district takes in more than the downtown core, so its figures describe the broader inner city as well as the towers. Even so, the split between home types is sharp.
| City Centre district, September 2026 | Detached | Apartment condo |
|---|---|---|
| Benchmark price | $981,300 | $297,900 |
| Change from September 2025 | +0.72% | −8.08% |
| Sales | 106 | 142 |
| Inventory | 371 | 819 |
| Months of supply | 3.50 | 5.77 |
City Centre carried 819 of the 1,816 apartment condos listed across Calgary in September 2026, about 45% of the city's condo inventory in one district. CREB's chief economist, Ann-Marie Lurie, explained the citywide split in the board's September 2026 market release: "The construction boom over the past three years was mostly driven by gains in higher-density sectors, significantly increasing the supply of apartment and row-style homes." The same release says apartment buyers have their demand "spread across more alternatives in the rental and new home markets." Downtown, that rental competition sits within a few blocks of the condo towers.
Who moved in downtown
Downtown's new housing has come from old office towers, converted with City of Calgary incentive funding. The finished buildings that have been publicly profiled are rental communities:
| Building | Address | Homes | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| The HAT at Eau Claire Place | 525 3 Ave. S.W. | 87 rentals | Open to residents by March 2025 |
| The Loft | 744 4 Ave. S.W. | 56 rentals | September 2025 |
| The former Petro Fina building | 736 8 Ave. S.W. | 103 suites, mostly rental | September 2025 |
| Dominion Civic Apartments | 665 8 St. S.W. | 132 rentals, 84 of them non-market affordable | October 2025 |
| The HAT @ NINTH | 205 9 St. S.E. | 108 rental suites | March 2026 |
The City announced the openings of The HAT at Eau Claire Place, The Loft and the Petro Fina building. CTV News Calgary reported on Dominion Civic Apartments, and CityNews Calgary reported on The HAT @ NINTH.
By the City's count on June 15, 2026, eight conversion projects were complete. Together they had turned 925,000 square feet of offices into nearly 800 homes plus 226 hotel rooms. That is a lot of new housing for the downtown core in a short window, and the finished buildings in the table above opened as rentals.
The rentals were already competing before the latest openings. In the fall 2025 survey, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Housing Market Information Portal recorded purpose-built apartment vacancy of 5.8% in the Downtown zone and 5.6% in the Beltline, with average rents of $1,782 and $1,774. The HAT @ NINTH opened into that market a few months later.
How a rental lobby moves a condo price
When a condo is bought to rent out, its price depends on the rent it can earn. That makes an investor-owned condo sensitive to anything that changes rents or how quickly units lease.
CMHC's 2025 Rental Market Report set out the chain of events for Calgary. Purpose-built rental supply grew 11% in 2025, which CMHC called "the fastest growth in decades," and much of it was "concentrated in higher-end units." Vacancy in condos rented out by their owners rose to 2.2%. The share of condos offered for rent fell to 35%, which CMHC read as "reduced investor participation." The report says renters who once chose condos for newer finishes or a particular location were moving to purpose-built rentals with similar amenities and stable lease terms. In response, condo investors "adjusted rents and offered incentives."
CMHC also found the highest vacancy rate, 6.7%, in the top rent quartile, the segment it says "often competes with the condominium apartment market." That is the price band where a downtown investor's two-bedroom sits.
Rents kept easing into this fall. The Rentals.ca and Urbanation National Rent Report for September 2026 put Calgary's average asking rent for apartments and condos at $1,823, down 3.9% from a year earlier. One-bedrooms were down 3.8% and two-bedrooms down 4.7%.
The price follows from there. When rents fall and leasing takes longer, a condo is worth less to an investor, investors bid less or stop bidding, and sellers who were counting on that bid have to lower their price. CREB's citywide figures for September 2026 show the result. Apartment sales were down 14.25% from a year earlier, days on market rose to 55, and the sales-to-list-price ratio slipped to 96.10%. CREB attributes the apartment slump to high-density construction across the city as a whole, so the downtown conversions are one source of new supply among several, not the only one. But they are the source closest to a downtown condo's front door.
What is still in the pipeline
The rental supply is not finished growing. The City's Downtown Office Conversion Program lists 21 supported projects converting 2.68 million square feet of offices into 2,667 homes, one 226-room hotel and a hostel. Eight of those projects were complete as of June 2026, which leaves 13 that the City has not reported as finished.
Two named projects have been announced as rentals:
- The Barron Building, 610 8 Ave. S.W. The Calgary Herald reported it as a 118-unit rental conversion and said tenants were expected in "the mid-to-late spring of 2026." The same report said Ruth's Chris Steak House will occupy 9,000 square feet that includes the main floor, and that its owner did not expect the restaurant to open until spring 2027.
- Eau Claire Residences, 521 3 Ave. S.W. The City announced it in March 2025 as 195 premium rental homes, next door to The HAT at Eau Claire Place.
The program also took a new round of applications this summer. It reopened in June 2026 with $25 million in incentive funding available. The intake closed on July 27, and the City lists funding decisions as expected by the end of Q4 2026. Updated criteria give more weight to affordable housing and large-scale projects, and a new competitive bid process opens the door to student housing, seniors' housing and co-living. All of those are rental formats too.
Why the City is building into a soft rental market
The City's own supporting analysis for the 2026 program review accepts that downtown rents rose between 2021 and 2024 and that "growth has slowed as supply has expanded." It also says "further moderation in rental growth is expected" while record housing starts continue.
The analysis also explains the timing. It cites federal projections that population growth will slow through 2026–2027 and then pick up again. It argues that starting conversions now means "additional supply is delivered when demand accelerates."
That gives a buyer a likely timeline. The City expects rent pressure to stay soft for now and to build again once population growth returns. A condo bought while investors are holding back is bought in the soft stretch. Whether demand actually returns on that schedule depends on migration, which no one controls. In the City's June 2026 announcement, Thom Mahler, the City's Director of Downtown Strategy, said the program is "five years into a ten-year plan" and "nearly halfway" to its goal of removing 6 million square feet of downtown office space. By the City's own plan, the program has about five years left to run.
What this means at the offer table
For a buyer who plans to live in the unit, the investor pullback works in their favor:
- Fewer competing bidders. When fewer condos are being bought to rent out, there are fewer investors bidding on the same unit, so less of the asking price is set by rent calculations.
- Room to negotiate. City Centre condos had 5.77 months of supply in September 2026, against 3.50 for detached homes in the same district. Citywide, condos sold at 96.10% of list price.
- The building's mix of owners and renters matters more. In a tower where many units are rented out, rental competition shows up in the building's own resale listings. Units bought by investors to rent out can come back on the market at the same time when leases end.
For a seller whose tenant has just left, the rental buildings down the street now set the comparison. Many of them offer modern amenities and stable lease terms, the features CMHC says pulled renters away from condos. Pricing works better when it's based on what a buyer who plans to live there will pay, not on the rent a unit earned last year.
FAQ
Are any of the downtown conversions selling condos? The finished conversions profiled in the City's and local news coverage are rental buildings. The Barron Building and Eau Claire Residences have also been described as rentals.
Does the City Centre benchmark describe a luxury downtown condo? No. A benchmark price tracks a typical home in the district. Premium units in buildings like those along Eau Claire trade on their own comparable sales, which is why recent sales in your specific building matter more than the district average.
When will the next round of conversion projects be announced? The City lists funding decisions on the summer 2026 intake as expected by the end of Q4 2026.
If you own a downtown condo and are deciding whether to sell, re-lease or hold, or you are a buyer looking for the right unit in this market, Dexter and Co can show you how your building's recent sales compare with the rentals now leasing a few blocks away. Request a private valuation and we will start with your building's numbers.
