Jeff MacKinnon

New Year’s Day may have marked the beginning of the end of the Canadian foreign buyer’s ban.

The restriction on foreign ownership of real estate in Canada is scheduled to come to an end on Jan. 1, 2027. It was introduced back in 2023 and extended in 2025 in an attempt to get prices under control.

According to increased chatter in the real estate business, Prime Minister Mark Carney is considering pulling the plug when it expires, thus allowing more foreign buyers back in the game. Those in the building business in Toronto and Vancouver are hoping that’s the case. The condo markets in those locales are struggling badly.

In Calgary the situation isn’t as bad, though real estate prices have been on the gradual decline in all categories – detached, townhomes, condos – over the past 12 months and continued construction of new buildings continues at a feverish pace. The sellers market of 2024 turned into a balanced market in 2025 and in terms of condos, a buyer’s market.

Despite what proponents of scrapping the ban argue, the foreign buyer’s ban is not the reason why Calgary’s real estate market is no longer a feeding frenzy. It’s because of the ‘economic uncertainty’ of living with Trump’s tariff madness; and the reality that the prices have reached the point people who were considering buying a new home in Calgary are holding off to see what happens in the market. Or simply can’t afford to buy anymore.

Also waiting are those coming to Calgary from out of the country who arrived here to discover they are not allowed to buy.

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