Olympics Would Light Torch Under Calgary Real Estate

There is serious consideration being given to entering a bid for the Winter Olympics in 2026.  Calgary’s real estate industry would be one of the biggest benefactors of holding the games here again.

There’s a lot of buzz in our city right now after last month’s formal announcement that a committee has been struck to explore the possibility.  

While the City of Calgary has yet to decide whether they’d go through with a bid, even if the committee finds it beneficial, one only has to look at once happened in 1988 when we did host it.

Dr. Harry Hiller, a professor at the University of Calgary, has examined the impact of the Games on host cities and says he’s gathered evidence from the two occasions when the Olympics have been held in Canada. He says real estate prices, in 1988 and 2010, surged on both occasions.

In a recent article in the Calgary Real Estate Board’s CREB Now newsletter, Hiller said the basic premise of higher real estate prices is based on local improvements.  He cites an example of when an undesirable property in an area is improved.  It improves the value of the properties in the immediate vicinity.  The same holds true when a city is preparing to host the Olympics.  An event like this garners a lot of attention and public funding which goes towards improving facilities, rehabilitating areas of land that were previously unusable and infrastructure.  When new facilities such as sports venues are constructed, it provides long-lasting benefits to the community.  A very recent example is the construction of the Ice District and Rogers Place in Edmonton where the residential area in the downtown area has seen values increase.

In Vancouver, the Olympic Village was constructed on a site that was contaminated but suddenly, that area along the water front is suddenly made beautiful.  Everything within a block or two of that area is going to go up in value.  In fact, Vancouver home prices as a whole have soared in the years since 2010.   Lower interest rates have also contributed to the spike in average home prices in the Vancouver area.

Cracking open the archives from 1988, CREB reports that sales that year were at a record breaking $1.39 billion.  Sales volume increased from 1987 to 1988 by 16% and the following year, a further 33%.   Prices increased 8% over 1987 and the year following, prices rose another 12.5% according to the article.  Prices in the 10-year period after 1988 inched up but the legacy of the 1988 Olympics is still felt in the market today reported the chairman of WinSport, Scott Hutcheson.

The facilities that are a legacy of those games have also attracted people, and home buyers, to Calgary.  Elite athletes and their coaches plus professionals from every country on the planet.  Hutcheson is also with Aspen Properties and in his role as executive chairman has seen the impact of real estate in the city’s core.

He said the construction of new facilities has a down side. For example, when the Saddledome was constructed many homes in Victoria Park were demolished and citizens were displaced. Land values around Stampede Park went up making some housing unaffordable for locals.  But overall, mega events, like the Olympics, are good for a city’s reputation and economy as a whole.  The 1988 Games were a pivotal point in Calgary’s history, precipitating the city’s rapid growth in the decades that followed.

Real estate prices aside, there were other legacies from the previous Olympics that were intangible and hard to put a value on.  Calgary’s remarkable volunteer spirit and the unification of communities – something Hutcheson said can’t be measured in dollars and cents.

Once the committee puts its findings in front of City Council, a decision as to whether we’ll put a bid in will be made in late summer 2017.  The bid will be awarded in 2019.