Western defence hub marshals housing plans in Edmonton

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Edmonton is on the verge of another housing boom.

Despite a somewhat slower 2026 new housing market — after last year’s record 21,337 housing starts — local home builders are being told to gear up for what well may become another building surge.

With the Edmonton metro region now positioning itself as western Canada’s defence hub, and federal military spending set to soar to $150 billion to meet a NATO five per cent benchmark — from about $35 billion — on an annual basis, developers and builders were told the time is now.

In fact, the BILD Edmonton Metro audience at a recent luncheon event titled Building Canada’s Western Defence Hub: Jobs, Investment and Housing in the Edmonton Region heard that the growth has already started.

More than 1,000 new military housing units were announced earlier this year for Edmonton as Defence Construction Canada issued an advance procurement notice for potential housing projects across Canada valued at about $3.74 billion. In July, 36 net-zero-emissions-ready apartments were unveiled at CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Edmonton. Valued at $22.5 million, it’s the first net-zero-emissions-ready residential housing development in that federal portfolio.

But those units may be just the tip of the iceberg.

As part of Canada’s new defence positioning with bolstered military spending, there will also be a greater emphasis placed on CFB Edmonton, which could see its personnel numbers increase substantially.

“We’re talking about 5,000 troops coming to Edmonton over the next couple of years,” Edmonton Coun. Aaron Paquette, one of the luncheon panellists, told Postmedia. “A lot of them will be bringing family and so that means there’s going to be a massive need for new homes in the area.”

For the moment, Paquette believes existing development should be able to absorb the impact from the newcomers as there will be needs beyond the federally built military housing. He points to new or newer neighbourhoods in the north — closer to where CFB Edmonton is — such as Marquis in the northeast and neighbouring areas like Quarry South.

“So that will be a number of new homes for families right near the base, just like a five-minute drive from the base,” said Paquette.

However, he also said everything is on the table when it comes to new residential development in Edmonton, even lands in the southwest, south of 41st Avenue, which haven’t been developed yet as the city looked to substantially complete existing neighbourhoods before bringing on newer ones.

Paquette also said the future is not far off, and work needs to be done now, not later.

Meanwhile, St. Albert, reasonably close to CFB Edmonton, has received $28 million via the federal Build Communities Strong Fund that will go to infrastructure and servicing work to help accelerate growth in its northeast residential neighbourhoods.

Going forward, event moderator Rohit Gupta, president of the Rohit Group of Companies, said he expects housing demand will begin to increase in the back half of 2027, noting it takes time for the federal government’s investment cycle to ramp up.

“The (housing) industry is slightly overbuilt on today’s basis but is actively adding more subdivisions and more new neighbourhoods and starting construction on more new homes,” said Gupta.

He explained that isn’t a contradiction given a slower market than 2025 but rather that the industry was in full stride when federal immigration quotas were reduced. On the flip side, he said, Alberta’s oil and gas sector is strong, there’s increasing investment in data centres, as well as the federal defence possibilities and all bode well for the future of the province, and in turn, a stronger housing market.

“I think we’re entering a real, real strong boom cycle from an Alberta perspective and so the (housing) industry has the confidence to keep investing in the future,” added Gupta.

Edmonton is leveraging its assets.

The closest major city to Canada’s Arctic, it’s capitalizing on geography, innovation and industry. That includes Alberta’s Industrial Heartland — Canada’s largest energy, plastics and petrochemical cluster — the Nisku Industrial Park, which is North America’s second largest industrial fabrication zone, and the University of Alberta, ranked as Canada’s top university in artificial intelligence and a designated NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator. These and other defence related organizations formed the Edmonton Region Defence Alliance in early 2026.

But the key is CFB Edmonton, said Andre Corbould, a luncheon speaker and managing partner at Integrated Strategic Partners Inc.

“You’re going to see an increase in size there over the next few years because there are new units standing up and it will become the manoeuvre division for Canada, which is really the preeminent division for Canada to do overseas operations,” Corbould told Postmedia.

It’s because of this and the other defence hub advantages that has the housing industry excited about its future.

“Our industry is just keen to help settle Canadians from wherever they’re coming from and this is a new injection of Canadians who will be moving either temporarily or potentially even permanently,” said BILD Edmonton Metro CEO Kalen Anderson. “One thing we do know is that with the defence industry growing its presence in our region that is a real tangible source of new Edmontonians.”