Renting out a property in Calgary
Calgary's secondary suite rules are the thing most owners get wrong, and the consequences are not theoretical: an unpermitted suite affects insurance, financing and what can lawfully be advertised.
Secondary suites must be permitted and registered. A suite needs development and building permits, and legally registered suites appear in the City's public secondary suite registry. Buying a property advertised as having a suite is not the same as buying a property with a legal suite, check the registry rather than the listing. Property tax in Calgary runs around 0.65% of assessed value as a planning figure. Everything else is provincial and identical across Alberta: the security deposit is capped at one month's rent and returned within 10 days, rent can rise only once every 365 days with 3 full tenancy months' notice on a month-to-month tenancy, and entry needs 24 hours' written notice.
The Calgary rental market
Calgary is really two rental markets and treating it as one produces bad decisions. Purpose-built apartment supply and ground-oriented housing, detached homes, townhouses and secondary suites, have been moving in different directions, so a citywide average describes neither. Which segment a property sits in matters more than which quadrant it is in.
No average rent or vacancy figure is published on this page. Those belong to CMHC's annual Rental Market Survey, which states its own survey period, a rent figure typed into a page goes stale silently and gets quoted for years. Use the yield calculator and rent gap calculator, which show their assumptions.
What is different about Calgary
Secondary suites must be permitted and registered
A suite needs development and building permits, and legally registered suites appear in the City's public secondary suite registry. Buying a property advertised as having a suite is not the same as buying a property with a legal suite, check the registry rather than the listing. Source.
An illegal suite is an insurance and financing problem
Insurers can decline a claim on an unpermitted suite, and lenders may refuse to count its income when qualifying a mortgage. The rent it produces is worth much less than it looks if it cannot be declared or insured.
Short-term rentals need a business licence
Renting short-term in Calgary requires a business licence, and the rules differ from a standard residential tenancy. A property switching between short-term and long-term use is switching regulatory regimes, not just tenants. Source.
What it costs to run
Property tax in Calgary is estimated at roughly 0.65% of assessed value in the calculators on this site. That is a planning figure only, municipal rates change annually and vary by assessment class, so check the actual tax notice for any specific address before relying on it.
The calculators on this site assume total operating expenses of 35–45% of collected rent before any mortgage, which is the band they flag as normal. A result below 35% usually means something has been left out, and the line most often missing is turnover, vacancy, leasing, cleaning and paint between tenants. Run your own figures rather than taking the band as a market statistic.
Alberta tenancy rules, the same province-wide
Tenancy law is provincial; only the civic details above change between municipalities.
- Security deposits: the one-month cap, the 10-day return deadline, and the interest owed
- Rent increases: no cap on the amount, strict rules on timing, with a calculator
- Landlord entry: the 24-hour written notice rule and its exceptions
- Ending a tenancy: notice periods by tenancy type and the grounds a landlord needs
General information about Alberta's Residential Tenancies Act, not legal advice. Rules change and individual situations vary. For a dispute, contact the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) or a lawyer. Rules current as of 2026-08-11.
Also worth reading
- Is your rent below market?: long tenancies drift, and Alberta's 365-day rule means catching up takes years.
- Rental yield and cap rate: what the property actually returns.
- All Alberta landlord and renter guides
What would yours actually rent for in Calgary?
Send the address. I'll come back with a rent it can realistically achieve and what it costs to run at 0.65% property tax — the two numbers you need before deciding whether to manage it yourself.
Last updated 2026-08-19 · Written by Mohammad Emon, REALTOR® (SRES®) & Licensed Property Manager, KO Realty · RECA licence LIC-00666633