When someone wants to buy a condo and asks their agent if it’s a good time to buy, you know what I hear nine times out of ten?

“Absolutely! Supply is up, so you’ve got plenty of choice now, and prices have levelled off. Let’s go buy a condo!”

That’s terrible advice.

I’ve been advising my clients for over a year not to buy apartment condos. In fact, in 2025, guess how many condo apartment purchases I completed for buyer clients?

Zero.

(I’m at ONE in 2026 so far, but it fits the only exception, which I’ll explain below.)

Why am I so down on the condo apartment market? Because it has shown clear signs of oversaturation for quite some time, and I’m simply not going to guide my clients into a crap market. 

I talked at least eight clients out of buying a condo last year. Why? Because my integrity is worth more than any commission cheque. I’m in this business for the long run, not one deal at a time.

So, why is the market so oversaturated?

There are many reasons, but I’ll keep it brief.

The most obvious is overbuilding. Have you seen how many condo projects are under construction across the city?

As I write this, there are about 1,500 active condo apartment listings in Calgary. That number alone isn’t alarming, but it’s early in the year and climbing quickly. There will be thousands more resale listings hitting the market this year. 

In addition to those thousands of new resale listings, roughly 18,000 new units are under construction and will hit the market over the next year or two. 

Eighteen thousand.

Yes, a significant portion of these are purpose-built rentals. You might think that doesn’t affect the resale condo market. You’d be wrong.

As the rental market softens, the incentive for small investors to buy condos for rental income drops. Many of those landlords are now (wisely) selling, adding more supply and further pressuring prices.

That’s the flip side of the equation, by the way. While supply is increasing, demand is falling off the cliff. 

So, what should you do if you already own a condo apartment?

A common reaction is: “The market is bad. I’ll just wait it out.”

That’s also a terrible idea. If values are trending down, you’re holding a depreciating asset. It’s like owning a stock in steady decline and hoping it rebounds despite clear fundamentals suggesting otherwise.

This is not a short-term blip. It feels like a structural shift that could last years, possibly longer. Even if the market turns in a decade, recovering lost value could take just as long. You want to wait 20 years for your condo to maybe get back to what it’s worth today? 

I’m not trying to be dramatic. I genuinely believe this. The condo apartment market is awful already and likely to get awfuller (if that’s not a word, it should be).

Here’s my best advice: Sell your condo apartment now, even if you take a loss. The loss you take today will be much less than the loss you take a year from now, and less again compared to the loss you will take in two years. Take the money and put it in a better investment.

The one exception:

I do think it can make sense to buy a small, inner-city condo at a low price point—under $300,000. I’ve helped one buyer do exactly this this year (hey M!), and I’m comfortable with that play.

Why? Because the wave of new supply is not targeting that segment. Very few (zero?) new units are both inner-city and under $300,000. So that niche is comparatively insulated.

To be clear, this entire Rant is about apartment condos only (and to a lesser extent condo townhomes)—not the overall real estate market. The single-family market is healthy and showing signs of a strong spring.

This year will be very interesting indeed.

Until next month!