Calgary Housing: Council's vote could stall vital momentum

[CALGARY, AB] — Calgary just locked in another $64.7 million from Ottawa's Housing Accelerator Fund — but the city's shot at the final $65 million depends entirely on a Council vote that's already gone sideways once.

The Third Check Has Cleared

Mayor Jeromy Farkas announced on X that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has confirmed Calgary's third of four HAF installments. The $64.7 million is part of a total $251 million federal commitment, tied to Calgary's "Home is Here" housing strategy — a 98-action plan that City Council approved back in September 2023.

On paper, the numbers look genuinely impressive. Since that strategy launched, Calgary has delivered over 61,000 new homes. HAF funds directly supported nearly 15,000 of those units, including more than 1,500 below-market homes. In 2025 alone, the city brought nearly 28,000 occupancy-ready homes online — roughly double its typical annual pace. Calgary also posted the highest housing starts per capita in Canada in 2024, at 20,165 units.

The rental vacancy rate climbed from 1.4% in 2023 to 4.6% in 2024. Average rent sits at $1,870/month as of February 2026. The benchmark home price in March 2026 was $565,600 — down 4.2% year-over-year. It's not "affordable city" territory, but the pressure has started to ease.

The $65 Million Problem Still Sitting on the Council Table

Here's where it gets complicated. The fourth and final HAF installment — roughly another $65 million — is conditional. CMHC requires City Council to adopt a zoning replacement that allows a minimum of four residential units on a majority of lots across the city, or to significantly develop such a replacement, before October 27, 2026.

That deadline lands directly on top of a political mess Council already created. On April 8, 2026 — just two weeks ago — Council voted 12-3 to repeal blanket rezoning, a policy introduced in May 2024 that had allowed multi-unit homes in established single-family neighbourhoods. CMHC had already warned that reversing housing commitments could put future HAF funding at risk.

Council is now threading a needle: they killed the old zoning policy but still need to deliver a new one that satisfies the same federal threshold — in six months — to collect the final cheque.

What's Actually at Stake for Everyday Calgarians

An RBC Economics report from April 2026 puts Calgary homeownership costs at roughly 42% of household income — uncomfortable, but well below the national average of 52%. That gap didn't happen by accident. It took a decade of sustained building to get here, and HAF money has been part of the engine.

Lose the final installment and you lose momentum — not just dollars. Purpose-built rental completions have been the primary driver of vacancy rate improvement. Slow the pipeline and that vacancy rate tightens back up. Rents follow.

Calgary committed to a target of 42,667 new units between October 2023 and October 2026. It's already blown past that number. But the federal government isn't just counting homes — it's counting policy commitments. And Council's April 8 vote put one of those commitments directly in question.

The clock on the fourth installment runs out in six months. Council has a replacement zoning framework to build, a fractured political consensus to repair, and a city that's finally — finally — catching its breath on housing supply. Whether they let that momentum stall is the only real question left on the table.