Alberta

Opportunities The city's population grew by 5.7 per cent in 2010 to 24,646, and its annual growth rate over the past 10 years has been around 5 per cent.

What was once feared as a looming oversupply of premier office space in Calgary has turned into a potential shortage as the downtown Class AA office vacancy rate has plunged to 2.1 per cent and the overall vacancy rate is now down to 8.

Suburban developers within Calgary city limits will pay significantly more in development levies now that Calgary city council has accepted a negotiated agreement between the city's development community and its bureaucrats.

The Alberta government is proposing changes to improve the standard of building in Alberta to better protect new homebuyers and hold builders more accountable. "The vast majority of homes in Alberta are built well and stand the test of time.

The rising fortunes in the oilpatch are reflected in a reduced industrial vacancy rate in the Greater Edmonton area for the first quarter of 2011. The industrial vacancy rate fell from 3.58 per cent at the end of 2010 to 3.

The City of Medicine Hat is trying to spur on downtown redevelopment with a new incentive program. The program consists of incentives available to downtown property owners to assist them to redevelop or initiate new developments in the city centre.

Industrial Industrial land prices - $120,000 to $160,000 per acre for partly serviced, $265,000 to $285,000 per acre for fully serviced - have bottomed out, realtors suggest, and while they may not surge forward significantly in 2011, there's now dem

An ongoing review of Banff's land-use bylaw has come with a controversial recommendation from its review team: a "merit-based" system to dispense remaining commercial development allotments. There is also an emphasis on speed.

Alberta's largest city won't have vastly relaxed rules for secondary suites. Calgary city council voted in March only to study the issue more and do more to accommodate new suites in neighbourhoods where they are already permitted.

Building permit numbers are looking a lot healthier these days in Alberta's Rocky Mountain paradise, but they're a little on the deceiving side. The Town of Canmore approved building permits for over $32.