In a recent end-of-year report, the development services department of the City of Edmonton said 2024 was a record growth year for the city.
The total value of construction permits was $4.2 billion, a 31 per cent increase over 2023.
In addition, the city awarded 50 per cent more residential development and building permits than it did the year before.
David Johnson, president of the Edmonton Construction Association, says contractors and subtrades in the city and region have been busy.
“Many of our members have a big backlog of work,” says Johnson. “And a lot of them are becoming more careful about which projects they bid on, because they don’t want to take on more work than they can realistically handle and get stretched too thin.”
According to the city’s Q4 2024 Economic Update, housing starts activity was “robust,” with the greatest number of annual housing starts “since at least 1990.”
Strong residential construction in 2024 was the result of increased housing demand by a growing population and more competition for units in the rental and existing home markets.
Between 2023 and 2024, Edmonton’s population grew by 5.7 per cent, reaching almost 1.2 million. This was the fastest growth rate “since at least 2002.”
There were a total of 13,484 housing starts in Edmonton in 2024, a 40-per cent increase over 2023.
Over the course of 2024, residential growth starts was led by apartments (plus-48 per cent), primarily rentals and single detached units (plus-41 per cent).
Johnson says Edmonton and region have been booming for some time and that growth is accelerating.
“Strong growth is likely to continue for at least another two years,” he says.
All types of construction in Edmonton are seeing a surge.
“There are 167 projects under construction now in the city that are worth $43.3 billion,” says Johnson. “Of that amount, $1.2 billion is single- and multi-family residential, $32.7 billion is ICI and $5.4 billion is infrastructure.”
On top of that, $12.4 billion of the proposed 2025 Alberta capital budget is slated for Edmonton.
Proposed are 36 school renovation and upgrade projects in Edmonton and 14 new schools.
Jack Mintz, president’s fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, grew up in northwest Edmonton.
He says the city has a solid and stable economic base that makes his hometown attractive to people in the rest of Canada and the rest of the world.
“The oil and gas corporate jobs are in Calgary, but Edmonton has lots of employment opportunities in oil and gas production,” says Mintz. “In addition, there is the provincial government, the University of Alberta and NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), service companies, such as Stantec and PCL, and the Canadian Western Bank and other financial institutions.”
Kevin McQuillan, research fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, says the good times have not been restricted to Edmonton. The economic boom has also lifted the boats of Calgary as well as smaller Alberta cities, such as Red Deer and Lethbridge.
McQuillan is the author of a recently published briefing paper called Population Change and the Housing Market in Alberta.
He writes the collapse of oil prices in 2014 led to more people leaving the province than arriving.
“Of special concern was the growing exodus of young people. Alberta became less attractive to newcomers to Canada as well and the province’s birth rate declined.”
Fortuitously, however, the province’s luck changed quickly.
“The war in Ukraine and other shifts in the international environment produced a turnaround in oil prices, and economic and demographic indicators turned upward.”
McQuillan says Alberta has been getting in-migration again from both the rest of Canada and the rest of the world.
“Alberta has been gaining population in almost all categories, including temporary foreign workers,” says McQuillan. “There have been relatively few international students compared to Ontario and B.C., however.”
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