It’s one of the most common questions in Calgary real estate:
Is a one-storey home more valuable than a multi-storey home?
The answer isn’t emotional. It’s structural.
In 2025, one-storey detached homes represented just 27 per cent of all listings in the Calgary market. That smaller share of inventory reflects a long-term shift in construction trends. Over the past decade, builders have favored larger, multi-storey designs, while redevelopment has steadily replaced older bungalows with newer infills.
Scarcity alone, however, does not guarantee stronger price growth.
Despite generally lower months of supply for one-storey homes, their benchmark price remained stable in 2025, while multi-storey homes saw nearly two per cent price growth citywide. In most districts, multi-storey properties outperformed — with the exception of the North East and North districts.
Why?
Vintage matters.
Across Calgary, multi-storey homes tend to be newer and larger than one-storey properties. Buyers often pay for square footage, layout efficiency, and modern finishes. That structural difference explains much of the price gap.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
When we isolate communities where one-storey and multi-storey homes were built in similar time periods, the results become mixed. Roughly half of those communities reported stronger price growth for one-storey homes. The other half favored multi-storey properties.
That tells us something critical.
This isn’t a height debate. It’s a context debate.
For buyers, the decision shouldn’t be framed as bungalow versus two-storey. It should be framed as location, condition, lot size, and comparable inventory. For sellers, pricing strategy must reflect not just supply, but the age and competitive positioning of your property within your specific community.
For investors, this reinforces a broader principle in Calgary real estate: market-wide headlines rarely tell the full story. Micro-market dynamics drive outcomes.
The Calgary housing market rewards precision. And in 2026, understanding how inventory mix, construction trends, and community-level data intersect will matter far more than simply counting stairs.
Because in this city, value isn’t built vertically.
It’s built strategically.
