Calgary's Apartment Market Is a Buyer's Market Right Now

By Erin Reeves

Erin is connected with top builders, contractors, and real estate pros. That’s how she gets her clients the inside track on new property developments, market data, and happenings in the fastest growing quadrant of the city: South East Calgary.

Calgary’s market has been getting summed up in one nervous word lately: down. That word is doing a lot of unfair work, because the citywide number it comes from blends two very different markets into one figure. Detached homes are holding steady. Apartments are a different story, and if you’re weighing one, this is the part worth understanding.

Let me walk you through it calmly.

Our detached homes remain fairly tight and are holding their value. Nearly all the softness you’re reading about is coming from apartment-style homes, so let’s look at what’s actually happening based on the recent data and what it means for you.

Apartments have moved into buyer-friendly territory. They’re the most oversupplied part of our market, sitting at nearly six months of resale supply. Anything past roughly six months generally counts as a buyer’s market, so apartments are right at that line. Much of it comes down to rental supply, which has cooled ownership demand from first-time buyers and investors alike. Apartment sales are down about 26% so far this year, and these homes are taking longer to sell, around 52 days on market against 35 for detached. For a buyer, that means more choice and more time than you’ve had in a while.

The added supply has eased prices down. As of August 2026, the benchmark price for a Calgary apartment was $295,400, about 1% below the previous month and 8% below a year ago. Apartment prices peaked at $341,300 in August 2024, so they now sit nearly 13% under that peak. A detached home, by comparison, is around $744,300 and down only about 1% on the year. That gap shows how differently the two halves of our market are behaving. Eight per cent can sound alarming if you already own an apartment, though whether it reads as good news or hard news depends entirely on which side of the deal you’re on.

For buyers, the conditions genuinely work in your favour. You’ll find lower prices, more listings to compare, and sellers who are more patient and more willing to negotiate. For a first-time buyer or an investor watching for an entry point, this kind of window rarely opens in a hot market. A slower market isn’t a worse one to buy in. Often it’s the better one, because you can take your time and make a considered decision rather than a rushed one.

Honestly, with this much rental supply, it’s worth running the rent-versus-own numbers for your specific situation, and I’m always glad to help.

For sellers, pricing and presentation carry more weight than they have in years. With this much competition, you can’t count on the market to lift your price. The apartments selling well are the ones priced correctly for today and shown at their best. Some encouragement in the data, though: new listings have pulled back enough to keep inventory from climbing further, so the market isn’t growing more oversupplied; it’s working through what’s already there. You can sell an apartment right now with a clear, realistic plan.

Don’t let one citywide headline make your decision for you. Calgary is running a tight detached market and a buyer-friendly apartment market at the very same time, and averaging them together describes neither one well. What matters is your property type, your neighbourhood, and your situation, which is exactly the kind of clear read I love helping people get.

So if you’re weighing whether to buy or sell an apartment in Calgary and want to know what these numbers mean for you, let’s have a relaxed chat. Call or text me at 1-587-200-2728, email me at erin@reevesrealty.ca, or visit reevesrealty.ca. You’re not doing this alone. My job is to help you see the path clearly.