Airbnb or long-term tenant? What Calgary rentals actually earn
Everyone asks for "low vacancy" communities. Nobody measures vacancy at the community level, so we built the next best thing: weekly listing data since Feb 9, 2026, both rental markets, every community with enough data to say something honest.
The vacancy question everyone asks
The only true vacancy rate that exists for Calgary is CMHC's October survey of purpose-built rentals, and it's published city-wide only. It tells a story on its own: vacancy collapsed to 1.4% in 2023 (the tightest reading in our data, which starts in 2018), then a wave of new supply pushed it back to 5.0% in 2025, above the ~3% that industry rules of thumb call balanced. As of the October 2025 survey, the city as a whole leans renter-friendly. Two-bedroom townhouses (the only townhouse series CMHC publishes) stay tighter, at 2.0% in 2025: family-sized rentals remain the scarcest part of the market.
A city average hides what matters to a landlord: in some communities half of new listings are gone within 3 weeks, in others they sit for 9 weeks or more. That community-level speed is what this page measures.
Calgary apartment vacancy rate, CMHC October survey
Purpose-built apartment vacancy rate for Calgary, each October since 2018, from CMHC's rental market survey.
October 2025: 5.0%. Two-bedroom townhouses are far tighter: 2.0% (2025). The dashed line is the roughly 3% that rules of thumb call balanced.
Where long-term rentals move fastest
We track Calgary's public rental listings weekly (about 6k active listings at a time) and watch each one until it disappears, which most often means it leased (some are withdrawn or expire, and we count that honestly in the methodology below). Across 26,593 listings we watched from their first appearance (Feb 9 to Oct 31, 2026), half were gone within 6 weeks, and 23.1% within two, counting the listings still sitting on the market, not just the ones that moved.
The spread between communities is the story. In Willow Park, half of new listings are gone within 3 weeks and 39.4% vanish within two: a landlord's market whatever the city average says, though that reads on 29 tracked departures, so treat the exact ranking as a signal rather than a verdict.
Fastest-moving rental communities, ranked
The 15 Calgary communities where half of new long-term listings leave the market soonest, with asking rents.
| Community | Active listings | 1-bed asking rent | 2-bed asking rent | Weeks on market | Gone within 2 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willow Park | 7 | – | – | 3 | 39.4% |
| Millrise | 13 | $1,600 | $1,675 | 3 | 38.6% |
| Braeside | 11 | – | $1,895 | 3 | 36.1% |
| Strathcona Park | 7 | – | – | 4 | 40% |
| Douglasdale | 9 | – | – | 4 | 39.5% |
| Scenic Acres | 6 | – | $1,650 | 4 | 38.6% |
| Silver Springs | 10 | – | – | 4 | 37.5% |
| Signal Hill | 16 | – | $1,775 | 4 | 37.2% |
| New Brighton | 20 | $1,050 | $1,875 | 4 | 36.6% |
| Inglewood | 32 | $1,650 | $2,200 | 4 | 36.4% |
| McKenzie Lake | 8 | – | – | 4 | 34.8% |
| Lake Bonavista | 11 | $1,650 | $1,995 | 4 | 34.7% |
| Wildwood | 5 | – | – | 4 | 33.7% |
| Canyon Meadows | 18 | – | $1,600 | 4 | 32.9% |
| Altadore | 28 | $1,548 | $1,448 | 4 | 32.5% |
Top 15 of the 188 communities with enough tracked listings and 5+ active listings on Oct 31, 2026. Weeks on market: the week by which half of new listings have left the market. City-wide: 6 weeks, with 23.1% gone within two. Rents are asking rents; “–” means fewer than 3 priced listings of that size.
Share of listings gone within two weeks
Share of new long-term listings gone within two weeks, the 12 highest Calgary communities against the city rate.
Share of new listings that leave the market within two weeks of appearing, counting still-active listings. The 12 highest shares among communities with 5+ active listings; the dashed line is the city rate. Hover a bar for the sample size behind it.
The slow end matters just as much if you're buying: in Silverton, Glacier Ridge and Esker Park, it takes 9 weeks or more for half of new listings to move. The slow list is a mix: brand-new suburbs where investor-owned homes hit the rental market faster than tenants arrive, and older pockets where demand is simply thin. It is worth checking before buying anywhere for rental income.
The short-term side
In our Oct 31, 2026 snapshot, Calgary's Airbnb market was 5,439 active listings (hotels, B&Bs, and 28-night-minimum listings excluded), against 3,911 active short-term-rental business licences on the city registry. The median listing charges $145 a night (averaged across our weekly observations since Feb 10, 2026, so Stampede-season pricing doesn't inflate it) and has 30% of its next twelve months already booked or blocked.
One honest caveat before the table: a public Airbnb calendar can't distinguish a booked night from one the host blocked off. So "calendar booked/blocked" runs hotter than true occupancy, and the revenue estimates built on it are an upper bound, before costs: cleaning, management, insurance, licensing. We show them anyway: the community-to-community comparison should mostly hold, as long as hosts across communities block their calendars at broadly similar rates.
Top Airbnb communities by estimated gross revenue
Estimated gross monthly revenue per Airbnb, an upper bound, for the 15 highest Calgary communities, with nightly rates and calendars.
| Community | Airbnbs | Nightly rate | Calendar booked/blocked | Est. gross / month | Guest rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cougar Ridge | 11 | $327 | 60% | $5,587 | 4.79 |
| Eau Claire | 27 | $185 | 97% | $5,149 | 4.78 |
| Glendale | 22 | $198 | 75% | $3,500 | 4.9 |
| Edgemont | 24 | $205 | 41% | $2,886 | 4.95 |
| Canyon Meadows | 17 | $166 | 51% | $2,869 | 4.86 |
| Downtown Commercial Core | 21 | $127 | 77% | $2,839 | 4.61 |
| Mission | 18 | $155 | 59% | $2,714 | 4.88 |
| Kincora | 13 | $132 | 64% | $2,657 | 4.91 |
| Hillhurst | 40 | $257 | 31% | $2,594 | 4.9 |
| Willow Park | 10 | $266 | 24% | $2,584 | 4.98 |
| Haysboro | 10 | $204 | 42% | $2,558 | 4.95 |
| Erlton | 21 | $345 | 25% | $2,544 | 4.94 |
| Kingsland | 15 | $189 | 37% | $2,508 | 4.88 |
| Altadore | 26 | $181 | 46% | $2,426 | 4.91 |
| Glenbrook | 24 | $186 | 35% | $2,399 | 4.83 |
Top 15 of 132 communities with 10+ listings; hotels, B&Bs, and 28+ night-minimum listings excluded. Nightly rates are each listing's median across our weekly observations from Feb 10 to Oct 31, 2026, not peak-season pricing. Calendars are the Oct 31, 2026 snapshot. City-wide medians: $145/night, 30% of the next 12 months booked or blocked. Est. gross = each listing's nightly rate × its own calendar % × 30.4 days, then the community median, so it won't exactly match rate × calendar % from the adjacent columns, which are separate medians. An upper bound either way, since blocked nights count toward the calendar %.
Head-to-head: same unit, two strategies
Where we have enough data on both sides (113 community-and-size matchups), we can put the two strategies against each other directly. The cleanest way to read it is break-even occupancy: how many nights an Airbnb must fill, at that community's going nightly rate, to match the long-term rent. These figures deduct Airbnb's flat 15.5% host service fee (the one universal cost, in effect for all Canadian hosts since September 15, 2026) but not an operator's own costs (cleaning, utilities, insurance, management), which vary too much to assume. Your real break-even is higher, so treat these as the optimistic edge and factor your own costs in for a complete picture.
Take Eau Claire: the going asking rate for a 1-bed long-term is about $2,000 a month. The median 1-bed Airbnb there charges $172 a night, so it matches the lease at just 45% occupancy, and its calendar shows 97% of the next year already booked or blocked. Worth knowing: that comparison rests on 10 Airbnb listings and 15 rental listings (real data, small sample).
Run your own community and unit →
Pick any community, property type, and size and see the long-term rent, the
Airbnb estimate, and the break-even side by side.
Where the lease wins
In 89 of 113 matchups the Airbnb's estimated revenue, even before an operator's own costs, barely matches or falls below the long-term rent: the lease wins those on net with none of the turnover work. The Airbnb side counts as occupied the share of the next 12 months already booked or blocked on the Oct 31, 2026 calendars, so the count moves with the season the calendars are read in.
And a community median hides a second story: spread. In Beltline, the city's biggest Airbnb market at 386 listings, the bottom quarter of calendars sit 84% open while the top quarter run 57%+ booked or blocked. Oversupplied markets aren't uniformly bad; they're winners-and-losers markets, and the average tells you nothing about which one you'd be.
Matchups where long-term rent beats Airbnb gross
Community and unit-size matchups where estimated Airbnb revenue after the host fee barely matches or trails long-term asking rent.
| Community | Size | Long-term rent | Airbnb est., after fee | Airbnb premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skyview Ranch | 1-bed | $1,385/mo | $194/mo | ▼ 86% |
| West Springs | 1-bed | $1,737/mo | $280/mo | ▼ 84% |
| Highland Park | 2-bed | $1,525/mo | $326/mo | ▼ 79% |
| Legacy | 1-bed | $1,300/mo | $357/mo | ▼ 73% |
| Redstone | 2-bed | $1,500/mo | $425/mo | ▼ 72% |
| Dover | 2-bed | $1,600/mo | $495/mo | ▼ 69% |
| Legacy | 2-bed | $1,650/mo | $530/mo | ▼ 68% |
| Auburn Bay | 1-bed | $1,450/mo | $526/mo | ▼ 64% |
| Cityscape | 2-bed | $1,550/mo | $568/mo | ▼ 63% |
| Copperfield | 2-bed | $1,700/mo | $640/mo | ▼ 62% |
The 10 widest of 89 such matchups. Communities where Airbnb's estimated revenue, after the platform's 15.5% fee, barely matches (or falls below) the long-term asking rent. Since the Airbnb number is still before cleaning, insurance, and other operating costs, long-term wins these on net by a comfortable margin.
If you're buying for rental income
For a pure long-term play, the data points to Millrise, Braeside, Signal Hill, New Brighton, Inglewood and Lake Bonavista: half of new listings there are gone within 3 to 4 weeks, with enough listing volume to trust the read. For a pure short-term play, Cougar Ridge, Eau Claire and Glendale earn the most per Airbnb listing, with calendars already running well above break-even.
The most interesting list is the overlap: Cougar Ridge, Edgemont, Canyon Meadows and Mission are strong on both sides. A property there isn't a bet on one strategy: it can run as an Airbnb, and if regulation, seasonality, or the owner's patience changes, the long-term market absorbs it in weeks. That flexibility shows up in no single statistic, but it's real.
One honest limit before you act on any of this: everything above is about rent and how fast it moves, the demand side. It says nothing about what you'd pay to own the property. A community where rentals move fast can still be a mediocre buy if prices are steep, and a slower community can be the better yield if you get in cheap. Return is rent relative to price, and that's a different map. The follow-on post walks it: which communities actually pay back the most per dollar of assessed value, and whether new supply is about to compete it away.
Scouting to buy? Open the market explorer →
Rents, gross yields on assessed value, and the supply pipeline, ranked by
community.
This is market data, not financial advice, and every number here is as of Oct 31, 2026; the live ones are on the Rent it out or Airbnb it? page.
Next in this series: Where to actually buy: Calgary rental yield and supply →
Fast-moving rent is only half the story. The follow-on ranks communities by gross yield on assessed value, and weighs the permit pipeline that could compete it away.
Methodology and sources
How weeks on market, Airbnb revenue and break-even are worked out, the sample floors, and each number's source.
Long-term figures come from 38 weekly snapshots of Calgary's public rental listings (Feb 9, 2026 to Oct 31, 2026). We track each listing across snapshots; 'weeks on market' is the week by which half of new listings have left the market (a Kaplan-Meier median), counting listings that are still active rather than ignoring them; ignoring them would make every community look faster than it is. Listings already live at our first snapshot are excluded because we never saw them start. Non-dwelling listings (rooms for rent, storage, offices, parking) are excluded; basement and main-floor suites are included.
A listing leaving the market usually means it leased, but some are withdrawn or expire, and about 24.2% of departures had previously vanished and reappeared, so a short absence is not always a lease. All rents shown are asking rents on active listings, not signed-lease rents. The listing platforms we track under-represent large purpose-built towers, so apartment-heavy communities may show thinner supply than they really have. 38 weeks of history cover less than a full year, so no seasonal adjustment is possible yet.
Short-term figures come from our Oct 31, 2026 Airbnb data snapshot (5,439 active Calgary listings, excluding hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and listings requiring 28+ night stays). Occupancy is a proxy: the share of the next 12 months already marked unavailable on each listing's calendar. That counts booked nights and nights the host blocked, so estimated revenue is an upper bound. Nightly rates are each listing's median across our weekly observations from Feb 10, 2026 to Oct 31, 2026; a single summer snapshot would inflate them, since Airbnb's displayed price follows near-term dates and Calgary's citywide median ran from $125 in February to $219 in Stampede season. Estimated revenue is each listing's nightly rate times its own calendar share times 30.4 days, then the community median, so it will not exactly equal rate-times-occupancy computed from the table's own columns, which are separate medians. Update Oct 18, 2026: until then our weekly count missed part of four of Calgary's busiest areas (Beltline and the inner southwest; downtown, Eau Claire, Sunnyside and Hillhurst; Crescent Heights, Bridgeland and East Village; Livingston, Carrington and Evanston), because Airbnb shows at most about 270 listings per search. We now cover those areas in smaller pieces, so those listings are counted. That week our snapshot went from 4,722 to 5,607 listings, mostly for this reason rather than new supply. Counts for those communities before that date are too low and moved from week to week as listings dropped in and out of our count.
Airbnb now keeps a flat 15.5% host service fee on every booking subtotal (the old 3% host + guest-fee split is retired; the host-only fee reached all Canadian hosts on September 15, 2026). Because that fee is universal, the head-to-head revenue, premium, and break-even figures deduct it; the community-table estimated revenue stays gross as an observed-market figure. Beyond the fee, cleaning, supplies, management time, higher insurance, licensing, and vacancy risk all come out too, but those vary too much between hosts for us to assume, so we don't. Long-term rent has costs as well, just far fewer. One offsetting note: 82% of the nightly-rate observations we use were posted before Sep 15, 2026, while guests still paid Airbnb's ~14-16% surcharge on top; as hosts transition they may raise listed prices, so deducting 15.5% from those rates is a conservative floor.
Sample-size floors: weeks-on-market needs 15+ tracked departures per community; rent columns in the community table show with 3+ priced listings of that size, while head-to-head rent cells require 8+; Airbnb communities need 10+ active listings; head-to-head cells need 5+ Airbnb listings of that size. Communities below the floors are excluded rather than shown with unreliable numbers.
The only true vacancy rate is CMHC's annual October survey of purpose-built rentals, published city-wide only. Our community-level 'weeks on market' is a demand-speed proxy, not a vacancy rate; nobody measures vacancy at the community level. The townhouse vacancy figure is CMHC's two-bedroom townhouse rate, the only townhouse series the survey publishes.
Sources: Public rental listing platforms (weekly snapshots); Airbnb public listings and calendars; CMHC Rental Market Survey; City of Calgary short-term rental business licence registry (3,911 active licences as of Oct 31, 2026).
These numbers are as of Oct 31, 2026; the live ones are on the Rent it out or Airbnb it? page.