Infill housing in Edmonton

A review by Jacob Dawang

Jacob Dawang. “An eight home rowhouse under construction near me.”

2025: The year Edmonton built the missing middle. Jacob Dawang, January 2026. “Edmonton’s zoning reform is working. In 2025, newly legalized eight-home rowhomes drove a record increase in homebuilding, achieved by redeveloping only 0.39% of properties in mature neighbourhoods.”

• Edmonton issued building permits for a record number of homes in 2025, over 17,500.

• For the first time since the beginning of the dataset, more homes were permitted in rowhomes between 5 and 8 units than single family homes.

• The number of homes permitted in mature neighbourhoods almost equaled the number of homes permitted outside the Henday. It has never been close before.

• The magic of density means few properties need to be redeveloped to build a ton of homes: only 0.2% of properties across the RS Zone, and 0.4% within mature neighbourhoods were permitted to redevelop into 5 to 8 unit townhomes.

• Allowing eight homes per lot is critical: Projects with exactly eight units accounted for the vast majority of homes in the 5-8 unit category in the RS Zone.

• 2025 was the best year on record for building homes near transit. 30% of homes were permitted within 800m, approximately a 15 minute walk, of transit.

Of course the other big milestone in Edmonton in 2025 was the municipal election in October. Wikipedia. There doesn’t appear to have been a backlash against the 2024 zoning bylaw renewal which allowed more infill housing, up to three storeys and eight units on a single lot.

• Before the election, Grow Together Edmonton argued that infill housing wasn’t a major election issue. A poll by Leger found that it was only #11 on the list of voters’ top issues. Is Infill an Edmonton Election Issue in 2025? For an example of the opposition, see

• Seven of the eight incumbent councillors running were re-elected. (Karen Principe and Jennifer Rice voted against the zoning bylaw reform; Principe was re-elected, Rice was defeated.)

• Both leading mayoral candidates, Andrew Knack (who was elected) and Tim Cartmell, had voted for it as councillors. David Coletto at Abacus notes that neither candidate was particularly polarizing, with relatively few voters having a negative view of either of them.

This was in contrast to Calgary, where a majority of the newly elected council was committed to repealing the recent rezoning. Jeremy Klaszus, The Sprawl, September 2025: Blanket rezoning under fire as Calgary election season kicks off. They’re currently in the process of repealing it.

Previously:

Edmonton passes new zoning bylaw

Calgary council approves infill housing policy