A higher supply of housing has cooled a once-boiling-hot rental market in the city, but some students still face an uphill battle securing a dignified place to live.
“Cheaper housing may look like housing that is further away from the university or housing that is unsafe,”said Mahad Rzain, vice-president external at the University of Calgary’s student union. “We still hear about students that are couch surfing or effectively homeless.”
Rzain’s comments come as post-secondary institutions in the city are poised to welcome thousands of students onto their campuses. Many will seek housing through the institution. The University of Calgary, for instance, will have more than 2,800 students live in its residences from Sunday onwards.
More than 1,200 of those residents are first-year students. Housing costs for those students at the university range from $9,862 to $17,373, which includes a compulsory meal plan – depending on the size of the unit.
“(Those) rents are often unaffordable for students, and we can see numbers such as $2,000 per month on rents, and of course that varies depending on the exact unit,” Rzain said.
The university’s board of trustees stated in December that the institution will be raising its residence fees by between 2.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent depending on the arrangement. However, a closer look at fees for specific residences, such as International House, Rundle and Kananaskis, shows an increase of approximately five or 10 per cent.
Yamnuska Hall, one of University of Calgary’s residences, on July 21, 2022.
Getting the less expensive housing options not always easy for students
Meanwhile, those unable to secure a spot in the university’s residences are left to secure housing in the city’s rental market, notorious for its lack of rent control. However, rents have eased since 2024 when the city’s vacancy rate plummeted to 1.4 per cent.
A recent report from online rental marketplace Zumper.com stated average rents declined year over year, and remained largely flat since this past June.
Average rent for a one bedroom apartment fell more than five per cent year-over-year in July to $1,600, making Calgary the 16th costliest rental market out of 22 cities and, as a result, one of the most relatively affordable places to live. The average rent for a two-bedroom also fell in July.
A report by CMHC found that year-over-year asking rents in Calgary dropped from $1,620 to $1,550 for a one-bedroom apartment in the first quarter of 2026, a far cry from its peak of more than $1,800 in 2024, according to a separate estimate.
Economists pin that decrease on a higher vacancy rate among newer purpose-built rental units that are also less desirable than older, more spacious flats.
Nearly 5,500 houses were constructed in Calgary in the first quarter of 2026. More than 3,300 of the units built in 2026 were apartments, 2,635 of which were rental.
The housing starts for rental units have halved since 2023, when the construction of rentals jumped to more than 5,000 units — more than 23 times the average number of such units built between 2000 and 2010 — to accommodate a rising tide of people.
However, those units aren’t necessarily accessible. Many newer rental apartments are compact, albeit more expensive thanks to a variety of amenities offered by these buildings.
The overall average vacancy rate in the city in late 2025 was five per cent, but only 2.4 per cent of units built between 1980 and 1999, which are also cheaper, were available for rent.
That means those on the lowest rungs of the social ladder sometimes have to sacrifice their dignity to live.
“Students have to resort to living in overcrowded houses,” Rzain said. “And another factor to consider is some students have reported delays in their landlord alleviating a safety situation.”
Rzain said student budgets are further impacted by a recent provincial rule that assesses a loan applicant’s parental and spousal income to determine student loans, a practice followed in the rest of the country, but which nevertheless hurts a student’s financial situation.
“What that form doesn’t specify is whether or not the parents are actually contributing to the student’s education; they may not be, and students may be trying to get more independence from their parents, or there may be different factors as to why they can’t,” Rzain said.
Conversely, a spouse looking to study may have recently fled an abusive relationship.
“It’s simply unsafe or inappropriate for them to fill out their spouse’s income within that form because they cannot expect support from their spouse,” Rzain said.
“What that means is, when students have struggles to pay for their textbooks, their tuition, and their meals, they would rather save up and use money that is for other costs on their housing, and then they would just skip meals and avoid purchasing textbooks as a result.”