How does Edmonton have a rental glut in the midst of a housing crisis?
Housing crisis. You can’t hear one word without hearing the other. The narrative is clear, especially in Edmonton, which grew by more than 100,000 people over the two years previous — housing is in danger of not keeping up with growth.
But, if you weren’t aware of the talk of a housing crisis, you could log on to apartments.com, do a search and find deals aplenty for prospective renters. On that site, you can refine a search so it shows places that are offering “move-in specials.” Do that this week, and you will get 2,920 hits within Edmonton’s city limits. From free parking for a year to free cable to free rent for one or two months, the offers vary. But the message is clear — it is a renters’ market.
And some of the Downtown’s sexiest new rental towers are offering move-in deals. The Parks, the 36-storey luxury rental tower at Jasper Avenue and 108 Street, is currently offering two months free rent as a move-in incentive. Sky Signature Suites, the Oilers Entertainment Group’s project that towers over the Ice District, is offering Oilers tickets and live events three-packs, one month free rent and gym memberships as sweeteners for those looking to rent.
So, how is it that we have a housing shortage, but a glut of rental units on the market?
It’s because Edmonton builders reacted to the city’s population boom in fairly short order. While “housing crisis” is the narrative, the underlying truth is that Edmonton is doing a pretty decent job of keeping up with the growth. A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report shows that in October 2021, the city had 75,771 rental units available. Three years later, that inventory had grown to 85,795. So, while Edmonton’s population is growing by between five and six per cent year over year, the rental units available kept up on a per capita basis. And, because of that, rents in Edmonton are affordable compared to the rest of the country, and there are still plenty of unoccupied apartments on the market.
Kalen Anderson, the CEO of BILD Edmonton Metro, said that in the first 10 months of 2025, 16,551residential units had been built and/or approved. Of those, 36 per cent were “purpose-built rental.”
“That’s a lot,” said Anderson. “There’s no doubt about it. There has been a huge uptick not only in building in general, but multi-family building has gone up a lot.”
Rents in a state of ‘market correction’
Real-estate site Zumper just released a list of rental rates in 23 major Canadian cities, and Edmonton ranked 21st overall in terms of average rental rates. Of any major Canadian city that has a population greater than one million, Edmonton’s rents were the most affordable.
For November 2025, Zumper pegged the median rent for a one-bedroom unit in Edmonton at $1,380, while two-bedroom units were at $1,700, a “market correction” of 1.2 per cent over October. So as supply rises, the cost to rent is falling. It’s basic economics 101.
Donna Monkhouse is the executive director of the Alberta Residential Landlord Association. She said that pullbacks in rental rates are expected in the winter months, since this isn’t a popular time for move-ins and move-outs. She said landlords go out of their way to not have leases expire in the winter months because it can lead to suites being unoccupied.
But, that being said, there is indeed a large supply of rental units on the market, and it’s putting downward pressure on rents.
“There are a lot of new rentals in the market right now,” Monkhouse wrote in an email. “As well, new builds are going up all over Edmonton. Edmonton added thousands of new rental units in 2024, creating more choices for renters.”
And while Edmonton’s population was rising at breakneck speed, that growth is expected to slow. But landlords are also aware that inflation is squeezing renters, and the rising cost of food, utilities and gas means that there isn’t a lot of room to charge more in rent.
“Migration to the city has declined now as well. This has also softened demand as compared to the supply growth,” wrote Monkhouse. “Affordability for many has become an issue and tenants are being pushed to their affordability limit, and landlords are offering incentives to be competitive or maintain a tenant.”
It’s a national trend
But it’s not just Edmonton. Rents are falling across Canada. Zumper’s latest report shows that average rental rates nationwide have dropped for 13 straight months.
The fact that rents are going down across Canada, and have been doing so for more than a year, erodes the “move to Alberta” sentiment. It’s harder to sell the affordability advantage that Edmonton possesses when housing costs are falling in other parts of Canada, too.
Paul Morassutti, the chairman of commercial real-estate giant CBRE Canada, addressed the Toronto Real Estate Forum this week and said the rental market nationwide would continue to soften. And when it does recover, it will be through smaller-scale developments and not through megatowers. Plus, new limits on immigration numbers will ease the pressure on the rental market. He said that new buildings that have to be filled from the ground up will feel the impact a lot more than established buildings, where it’s a case of renting out one unit here, and one unit there. Plus, there is a glut of condos which are selling at lower and lower prices — in Edmonton, the average price of an apartment condo is just around $200,000 — and that also puts pressure on those looking to fill rental places.
The Realtors Association of Edmonton has the sales conversion rate of condos at 60 per cent. That means 60 per cent of those listed actually sold. That’s lower than the rates for detached houses, and down from a 67 per cent condo conversion rate from this time in 2024. So, the right-sizing of the condo market, and the domino effect it will have on the rental market, will take time.
“I agree with the experts who are all forecasting a stronger market three to four years from now once all the unsold condo inventory gets cleared out,” Morassutti said. “But it won’t look like it used to. The first victim will be the 60- and 70-storey buildings because you simply won’t be able to achieve pre-sales. Eventually, perhaps, but not anytime soon. As we recover, smaller projects appealing primarily to the end user will be the first to come online.”
BILD’s Anderson said the rush to build rentals was spurred by a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation incentive called MLI Select, which was focused on financing affordable and climate-resilient multi-unit projects. Now, the question — migration numbers are expected to peter out. So, who will fill all of these units that were built via well-meaning incentives?
“It allowed for favourable borrowing terms for affordable purpose-built rentals,” said Anderson. “We built a lot of those in Edmonton. The question, I suppose, for the future will be quite dependent on the migration numbers and what happens there. If we continue to see the level of migration we have been seeing, I don’t think we’ll be in a glut. It would get absorbed quickly. But, if migration tapers a bit we’ll probably see softening in terms of lower starts next year and maybe, even in some cases, lower rents that reflect that excess supply.”
In the meantime, enjoy the free TV packages and that complimentary parking spot.
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