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September 26, 2024
Edmonton is on track to see a record number of housing starts and residential units with approved building permits issued in 2024.
From January 1 to August 31, housing starts are up 48 per cent and the number of dwelling units with approved building permits is up 65 per cent over the same eight-month period in 2023.
The number of units with approved building permits to date in 2024 has already surpassed the number through all of 2023, and is on track to beat Edmonton’s all-time record, set in 2015. These figures, along with growth trends show a shift towards a more diverse housing supply and demonstrate how the City is making progress toward the housing targets set out in our Housing Accelerator Fund action plan.
“I'm very optimistic that we are beginning to see positive outcomes from several initiatives that make it easier, faster and more affordable to build the housing our city needs,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. “The City of Edmonton is working diligently to meet the growing demand for housing while expanding the variety of housing options to address diverse needs, including increasing our rental supply. City Council remains committed to implementing innovative policies and investments that ensure a strong future for all Edmontonians.”
“People are flocking to Edmonton and we’re in a race to build housing for The City Plan target of two million Edmontonians,” said Kim Petrin, Deputy City Manager, Urban Planning and Economy. “For more than a decade, the City has been breaking down barriers to residential development to plan for and accommodate this explosive growth. This has helped make development easier and faster and help retain our affordability advantage. 2024 is on track to be a record year for building in Edmonton and permit applications show no sign of slowing down.”
Some of the ways the City is making development faster and easier include:
- Eliminating parking minimums and modernizing our zoning bylaw to encourage diverse housing types.
- Opening market and non-market multi-unit housing in nodes (urban centres) and corridors (main streets), on surplus City-owned land, and near transit through targeted rezonings.
- Incentivizing development in priority areas through the Infill Infrastructure fund.
- Boosting overall housing supply growth through the Housing Accelerator Fund action plan.
Through the first eight months of 2024, apartments, row houses, mixed-use houses, secondary suites and backyard houses account for 68 per cent of the City’s total permitted residential units. These trends show an appetite for a variety of housing types and are aligned with the growth objectives of The City Plan and Edmonton’s new Zoning Bylaw.
The City also acts as an early investor in non-market affordable housing, providing land and capital grants to help attract investment from other orders of government and the private sector.
The City has supported 5,571 units of affordable housing in the last five years, more than double the units created in the ten years prior to 2019. The City’s investment of $254 million since 2019 has attracted an additional $891 million in investments from other orders of government and funding sources. The updated Affordable Housing Strategy set a new target of another 2,700 units between 2023 and 2026. We are on track to surpass this target by the end of 2024 with Council commitments for 2,879 new or renovated units of affordable housing.
“The city’s growing in leaps and bounds - not only in the number of housing units, but the variety of housing types. Fostering more opportunities for different kinds of housing is what our Housing Accelerator Fund action plan is all about and how we build a city where all Edmontonians, now and in the future, can find the type of housing they need in the neighbourhoods they call home,” said Christel Kjenner, Director, Housing Action Team.
The City is committed to continual innovation to improve the processes for obtaining permits, inspections and licences, which accelerates building and development. Recent service reviews and improvements that save customers time and money include:
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Auto Review for House Development Permits. Edmonton is the first Canadian city to automate approvals for housing development permits, which allows a builder to apply for a development permit and put a shovel in the ground on the same day.
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Building Permit Application and Fire Separation Between Row Houses with More than Two Secondary Suites. Edmonton developed this new policy, which offers equal or greater performance to current code requirements by providing an alternative fire-separation solution.
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Reduced Development Fees for Sanitary Servicing. With support from EPCOR and the development industry, the City has paused the collection of charges for the Sanitary Servicing Strategy Fund. Work is underway to evolve the financing model for large sanitary infrastructure while supporting the City’s growth.
Service improvements implemented since 2018 are estimated to save planning and development customers an estimated $5.3 million and 67,600 days annually.
Key Facts
Housing Starts, City of Edmonton
- January to August 2024: 8,888
- January to August 2023: 5,990
- 2023 Total: 9,665
- Record Total (2015): 13,311
- (Source: CMHC)
Net Residential Units With Approved Building Permits, City of Edmonton
- January to August 2024: 9,806
- January to August 2023: 5,940
- 2023 Total: 9,880
- Record Total (2015): 12,871
Net Residential Units With Approved Building Permits by Dwelling Type
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