Calgary ranks second in love for condo living, says StatsCan

New housing numbers from Statistics Canada put Calgary in second place nationally when it comes to people choosing to live in condos rather than houses.

Nearly 22 per cent of Calgarians call condos home, topped only by Vancouver where 30.6 per cent of the population are condo-dwellers.Abbotsford-Mission,Kelownaand Toronto follow with more than one in five households living in a condominium.

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Overall, 13.3 per cent of Canadians,or almost1.9million households, reported living in condominiumsin 2016. That number is up 1.2percentage points from2011. According to Statistics Canada, of those households,67.1 per cent were owners and 32.9 per centwere renters in 2016.

"Calgary has a great urban core and there's been a condo boom over the last decade," said Chris Pollen ofBattistella Developments.

"There's the affordability of price and shorter commute times and people just want that lock-and-leave lifestyle, a low maintenance lifestyle."

Battistellais one of many developersin the city banking on Calgary's love of smaller modern spaces. The company's show suite in the East Village features 376-square-feet of living space.

All walks of life

Pollen says condo buyers come from all walks of life and have different reasons for buying.

"Young first-time buyers who want vibrancy, downsizers looking to leave larger properties and possibly downsize a mortgage and maybe even buy a vacation property somewhere," Pollen said.

Condo real estate agent Mike Leibel says with prices way cheaper than Toronto and Vancouver, there's no shortage of people interested in buying.

"I'm always amazed because every time I go downtown, I see a new condo being built and I'm not sure where the end will be. I think we're going to see a lot more development downtown and on the outskirts too," he said.

The cost of housing doesn't appear to be much of a factor in driving the condo boom in Calgary.

The city ranked 25 out of 38 cities in terms of households that paid 30 per cent or more of their total income on their home.

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