Multi-family housing starts in Okotoks outpaced single-detached by a wide margin last year, but the town is still playing catch-up when it comes to a more diverse housing stock.
An updated Housing Needs Assessment, looking at demographic, economic and housing data, was presented to Okotoks council at its Oct. 28 meeting to show housing trends across all housing types for renters and owners.
Although most of the housing stock in Okotoks is single-family detached, multi-family development is increasing and made up more than half of all housing starts in the last two years, with multi-family making up 75 per cent of starts in 2023, according to the report,
Multi-family includes duplexes, row houses and apartment-style or condominium housing.
The report found that housing affordability is eroding for renters and owners, and suggests several reasons, one of which is unique to Okotoks, social planner Michelle Grenwich said during the meeting.
Housing costs in Okotoks are higher due, in part, to growth limits that were imposed over a decade ago to manage water supply.
Based on water capacity, the Town started restricting growth in about 2010, leading to slow growth after 2011, Grenwich said.
Around that time, construction of single-detached homes began to decline, and little multi-family housing was built, the report shows.
Grenwich said other municipalities in the Calgary region didn’t experience the same situation over that period, and the result is that local housing supply has not kept pace with demand, driving up prices across all housing types in Okotoks.
The Town said Okotoks went from being one of the fastest growing communities in the region prior to 2011 to one of the slowest.
Slow growth compounds other factors that impact housing affordability, such as record migration to Alberta, both internationally and from other provinces, high inflation and wage stagnation, Grenwich said.
“As demand continues to outpace supply, we have witnessed sharp increases in home prices over the last few years,” she said.
Those rising home prices are expected to further raise demand in the rental market.
“As more households are being pushed out of the ownership market, it's likely there will be much more households in the rental market,” she said.
Mayor Tanya Thorn said the multi-family market needs to catch up, and that is why so much multi-family construction is taking place.
Okotoks' concerns around water supply will be eased when the Foothills Okotoks Water Project is completed. The project broke ground recently and is scheduled for completion in 2026.
As water challenges are addressed and high immigration to Alberta continues, Grenwich said Okotoks is “on the cusp of experiencing significant population growth.”
Coun. Gord Lang said the Town needs to keep an eye on growth once the pipeline is finished.
“Just because we’ve got water, we can’t just open the doors,” Lang said.
The report, completed by HelpSeeker Technologies, looked at data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, in addition to data from the Town, Westwinds Communities, the Calgary Real Estate Board and rentfaster.ca.
Other findings in the report suggest there is an increase in seniors living alone and an increase in one- or two-person households, and it forecasts the deficit of non-market housing units to grow from 183 currently to 279 by 2031.
The Housing Needs Assessment is updated every five years, and the last was completed in 2019.
