Calgary's purpose-built rental vacancy rate climbed to 5.0% in October 2025 from 4.8% a year earlier, and the average rent rose to C$1,761 across all bedroom types, per CMHC's Rental Market Survey. StatCan's separate asking-rent series puts a 2-bedroom apartment's average paid rent at C$1,930 — above the average asking rent, an unusual gap worth reading carefully before you underwrite a deal here.
What CMHC's October 2025 survey actually shows
CMHC's Rental Market Survey data tables for Calgary record the purpose-built private apartment vacancy rate rising from 4.8% in October 2024 to 5.0% in October 2025, with the average rent across all bedroom types up from C$1,732 to C$1,761 over the same twelve months. That is a rent increase of roughly 1.7% — well below general Alberta inflation-adjusted wage growth, and it comes alongside a vacancy rate that is now the loosest of any major Alberta city CMHC tracks in this cycle.
A rising vacancy rate with rents still climbing, even slowly, is a specific Calgary signal: landlords are not yet cutting asking rents to fill units, but they have less pricing power than in 2023–24, when Alberta recorded some of the tightest vacancy rates in the country.
The StatCan gap: paid rent is running above asking rent
Statistics Canada's experimental asking-and-paid-rent series (table 46-10-0092-01) recorded, for the 2026 Q2 reference period, a 2-bedroom Calgary apartment averaging C$1,890 in asking rent against C$1,930 in average paid rent — paid rent running about C$40, or 2.1%, above what is currently being advertised.
| Measure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Average asking rent | C$1,890 |
| Average paid rent | C$1,930 |
| Paid vs. asking | +C$40 (+2.1%) |
Statistics Canada, table 46-10-0092-01, experimental estimates, reference period 2026-04 (Q2 2026). Distinct data vintage from CMHC's October 2025 survey above — do not blend the two dates into one figure.
StatCan itself labels this series experimental, and the two data sources are not the same vintage — CMHC's survey is October 2025, this StatCan table is Q2 2026. Read the two together for direction rather than combining them into a single number: Calgary rents were still climbing into 2026, in-place tenants are paying more than the newest listings ask, and a new-lease renter today may actually pay less than a comparable existing tenant renewed at an older, higher-appreciating price point.
Alberta has no rent-increase ceiling — a real difference from Ontario or BC
Unlike Ontario, BC, Manitoba or Quebec, Alberta sets no cap on how much a landlord can raise rent. The only statutory constraints are procedural: a minimum of 365 days must pass since the tenancy started or the last increase, whichever is later, and the landlord must give proper written notice — 3 full tenancy months for a month-to-month tenancy, 90 days for other periodic tenancies, or 12 full tenancy weeks for a week-to-week one.
For a Calgary investor, that means the C$1,761 average rent above is not capped by provincial policy the way a comparable Toronto or Vancouver unit's renewal rent would be — turnover and renewal rent growth in Calgary tracks the market rather than a government-set percentage. It also means an existing Calgary tenant has no statutory ceiling protecting them at renewal beyond the 365-day timing rule, which cuts the other way if you are the one renting.
Alberta's registration fee and Calgary's short-term rental rules
Alberta charges no provincial land transfer tax. Instead, the Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule sets a registration fee of C$50 plus C$5 per C$5,000 of the land's value for a Transfer of Land, and a separate, identically-structured C$50 plus C$5 per C$5,000 fee for registering the mortgage. On a C$500,000 Calgary purchase with an 80% mortgage (C$400,000): title transfer fee = C$50 + (C$500,000 ÷ C$5,000 × C$5) = C$50 + C$500 = C$550. Mortgage registration fee = C$50 + (C$400,000 ÷ C$5,000 × C$5) = C$50 + C$400 = C$450. Combined registration cost: C$1,000 — a small fraction of what a comparable Ontario or BC purchase would owe in land transfer tax.
If you are underwriting the property as a short-term rental instead of a long-term lease, Calgary's own bylaw applies a separate cost layer CMHC's rent data says nothing about: the city's short-term rental business licence rules require a licence in one of three categories — Primary Residence, Non-Primary Residence, or a Short-Term Rental Company Licence for platforms, the last of which carries an annual C$3,000 fee. Operating rules include no room without an egress window (multi-storey exemption applies), a maximum of two guests per room, no overlapping bookings, and mandatory posting of the licence number in any listing; non-compliance carries a C$1,000 fine per violation on conviction.
This page could not verify Calgary's 2026 residential property tax rate against the City's own documents, so no rate is quoted here. Model your holding costs using your own assessment notice rather than an estimated rate here.
The cap rate above ignores financing — here's the rate that actually governs it
Nothing above touches financing on purpose — a cap rate is a property-level return, independent of how any one buyer pays for it. But once you finance a Calgary purchase with 20% or more down, the mortgage falls into OSFI's uninsured category, and the qualifying rate is the greater of your contract rate plus 2 percentage points, or a 5.25% floor — not the rate you'll actually be charged. For a sense of where actual borrowing costs sit today, the Bank of Canada's own data puts the chartered-bank prime rate at 4.45% as of mid-September 2026, with each lender setting its own contract rate at a spread to that. Run the C$1,761 average rent above through an actual debt-service calculation at your lender's contract rate, not the cap rate, before deciding whether a Calgary deal cash flows once it's financed — the cap-rate calculator above and the debt-service math are two separate questions with two separate answers.
Methodology
Vacancy and rent figures are CMHC's October 2025 Rental Market Survey data tables for the Calgary CMA, purpose-built private apartment universe, all bedroom types combined. The asking-vs-paid rent comparison is Statistics Canada's separate, experimental table 46-10-0092-01 for 2-bedroom apartments, reference period 2026 Q2 — a different survey and vintage from CMHC's, shown side by side rather than blended into one number. The effective-gross-income worked example multiplies CMHC's own average rent by 12 and applies CMHC's own vacancy rate; it does not add an operating-expense estimate, which no source here publishes. Alberta land titles fees are computed directly from the current government fee schedule's stated formula.
Sources
- CMHC — Rental Market Survey Data Tables, Calgary, 2025 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Statistics Canada — Table 46-10-0092-01, asking and paid rent — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Alberta — During a tenancy — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Alberta — Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule — accessed 2026-09-21
- City of Calgary — Short-term rental business licence rules and regulations — accessed 2026-09-21
- OSFI — Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages — accessed 2026-09-21
- Bank of Canada — Valet API, Prime rate (V80691311) — accessed 2026-09-21