Alberta

While Calgary appears to have a shopping mall for every resident, more retail development on the western fringe of Calgary appears destined to go ahead, despite the fact some Springbank residents are opposed to any expansion of commercial space.

Calgary home prices are rising as sales soar, but affordability is not a concern to most residents.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the U.S.-based Urban Land Institute have named Calgary as the top market for property investment in its annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate (2013) report.

The growth cap is off for one of Alberta's fastest-growing towns. Okotoks town council voted earlier this fall to support a continuous growth model for the Foothills community of 25,000, located roughly 15 minutes south of Calgary.

The City of St. Albert city council voted unanimously in September to stop subdivisions in its Kingswood neighbourhood until Canterra Developments Corp. provides a park and school site.

With two-thirds of 2012 behind them, building activity was up in Alberta's major cities by about 7.9 per cent in Calgary and a somewhat more impressive 13.7 per cent in Edmonton. Still, Calgary was way ahead in total new construction, hitting $3.

The Tsuu T'ina First Nation wants to add significantly more development to its casino site on the edge of southwest Calgary.

Such events will help add to hotel occupancy during the slower winter tourism season, when visitation to key attractions such as the famous dinosaurs and the Royal Tyrrell Museum decline.

Canadian cities – with the exception of corruption-ridden, nationalist-leaning Montreal – are leading a revival in commercial real estate in North America while most U.S. cities still need intensive care.

Edmonton's suburban office market, particularly Sherwood Park, are leading absorption levels in the Alberta capital while the downtown area is merely "maintaining", according to a report from Avison Young.