One Storey or Two? What Calgary’s Housing Data Reveals Beneath the Debate
Few questions come up as often in Calgary real estate conversations as this one: Is a one-storey home actually more valuable than a multi-storey home? The answer, like most things in real estate, isn’t emotional. It’s structural, historical, and deeply local.
Start with the supply.
One-storey detached homes now represent a smaller share of overall inventory in the Calgary market. That’s not accidental. Construction trends have shifted decisively toward multi-storey builds, while redevelopment has steadily replaced older bungalows with larger, newer homes. In 2025, one-storey properties accounted for just 27 per cent of all listings, reinforcing their growing scarcity.
Scarcity alone, however, doesn’t guarantee price growth.
In 2025, benchmark prices for one-storey homes remained largely flat, while multi-storey homes posted nearly two per cent price growth across the city. That happened even though months of supply were generally lower for one-storey homes, a detail that often surprises buyers and sellers alike.
So why didn’t a tighter supply translate into stronger price appreciation?
The answer lies in vintage and scale. Across most districts, multi-storey homes tend to be newer, larger, and more aligned with modern buyer preferences. That combination matters. In fact, price growth for multi-storey homes outperformed one-storey homes in every district except the North East and North, where different affordability and buyer dynamics are at play.
This doesn’t mean bungalows are underperforming everywhere.
When you isolate communities where one-storey and multi-storey homes share similar build dates, the story becomes far more nuanced. In those cases, the results are mixed, with roughly half of the communities showing stronger price growth for one-storey homes, and half favouring multi-storey properties.
That tells us something important.
The market isn’t rewarding height. It’s a rewarding function, condition, and context.
In older inner-city or mature suburban neighbourhoods, one-storey homes can command strong interest when they offer comparable size, updates, and lot value. In newer areas, multi-storey homes benefit from layout efficiency, square footage, and buyer expectations that have evolved alongside construction norms.
For buyers, this means the decision shouldn’t be framed as one-storey versus two-storey. It should be framed as this home versus its true competition.
For sellers, it reinforces that pricing must reflect not just scarcity, but age, usability, and buyer demand within your specific community.
For investors, it’s a reminder that headline trends don’t replace street-level analysis.
In Calgary’s housing market, value isn’t built vertically or horizontally.
It’s built where supply history, buyer preference, and neighbourhood context intersect.
