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Cities / Calgary

Inner city · SW Calgary

South Calgary

Marda Loop's cafés and a mix of townhomes, condos and infill

  • Young families
  • Couples
  • Walkable shopping

At a glance

An inner-city community south-west of downtown that includes much of the Marda Loop shopping district. It mixes older detached homes, newer townhouses, infill and mid-rise condos, with about half of households renting.

Median assessed home
$409K
2026 assessment, all home types · city $575K
Residents
5,540
estimate for mid-2025, up from 4,540 at the 2021 census
Households renting
53%
city 34%
Permits per year
87
2021–2025 average

What the numbers mean

  • The median assessed home is $409K, 29% below the Calgary median of $575K.
  • That median blends very different homes. By type, the medians are detached $892K, semi-detached or row $733K, condo or apartment $327K (city: $718K detached, $478K semi or row, $295K condo). Compare like with like.
  • 53% of households rent, well above the 34% city-wide, so expect a younger, more mobile mix of neighbours.
  • 32% of residents are 20 to 34, versus 21% city-wide. It skews young-professional.
  • Housing is a mix: 41% apartments, with the rest townhouses, duplexes and houses.
  • Building activity is in line with the city as a whole, at about 87 permits a year.

Who lives here

Share of residents by age, 2021 census.

0-1414%
15-194%
20-247%
25-3425%
35-4419%
45-5413%
55-6410%
65-745%
75+3%

Homes

Share of homes by type, 2019 civic census.

Single-family23%
Duplex13%
Townhouse15%
Apartment42%
Multi-plex & converted8%

Getting to work1

Drive, no traffic Bike

  • Downtown9 min drive · 24 min bike
  • Foothills and UCalgary10 min drive · 29 min bike
  • Airport26 min drive · 1 h 1 min bike
  • SE industrial19 min drive · 50 min bike

Transit times aren't included yet. Check Calgary Transit's trip planner for a weekday 8:00 a.m. trip.

Daily errands on foot2

Places within the community or a 5-minute walk of its edge, compared with the typical community in Calgary.

Supermarkets
2
city median 2
Cafés and bakeries
17
city median 4
Pharmacies and clinics
5
city median 4
Playgrounds and dog parks
14
city median 15

Assessed value by home type3

The overall median mixes house types, so it can match none of them. Split by type, 2026 assessments:

Detached house
$892K
482 homes · city $718K
Semi-detached or row
$733K
722 homes · city $478K
Condo or apartment
$327K
748 homes · city $295K

Estimated property tax4

What owning here costs each year in property tax at the median assessed value of each home type. Renters don’t pay it directly, but landlords pass it on.

Detached house
$5,930 a year
about $495 a month on a $892K assessment
Semi-detached or row
$4,870 a year
about $405 a month on a $733K assessment
Condo or apartment
$2,170 a year
about $180 a month on a $327K assessment

Upfront closing costs5

Alberta has no land transfer tax; the Land Titles transfer fee is about 0.1% of the price. Government fees at the median home price:

Land title transfer fee
$460
on $409K

Household income and housing costs6

What households here earn and how much of it housing takes, 2021 Census.

Median household income
$103,200
2020, before tax
Spend 30%+ on housing
28%
of owner and tenant households
Owners' monthly cost
$2,100
median shelter cost
Tenants' monthly cost
$1,340
median shelter cost

Typical apartment rent nearby7

South Calgary sits in CMHC's Southwest survey zone. October 2025 average rent of purpose-built rental apartments in that zone:

Studio
—
not reported
1 bedroom
$1,641
+$60 vs metro average
2 bedroom
$2,069
+$161 vs metro average
3 bedroom or more
$2,128
+$10 vs metro average

Flood and airport noise8

None of South Calgary lies inside the City's regulatory flood map.

South Calgary is outside the airport's noise forecast contours (NEF 25 and above).

Schools9

  • No public, Catholic, French-language or charter school is located inside South Calgary. From the middle of the community, the nearest elementary school is about 0.9 km away, the nearest junior high 1.1 km and the nearest high school 1.1 km. 10 other elementary schools lie within 2 km.

1 private school is also located here.

The school nearest the house may not be the school your child is assigned to. Boards assign a designated school by street address, and a community can be split across several, or have none inside its boundary. The boards don’t publish these attendance areas as open data, only an address lookup: use the CBE Find a School tool (including French Immersion and IB) or contact the Calgary Catholic School District with the exact address before you rent or buy. Capped schools can also place new students elsewhere.

We don’t rate schools: test results are not open data, so a school’s quality is something to ask about on a visit.

LRT access10

The closest part of South Calgary is about 1.6 km from Sunalta station (Blue Line). That is a short bike ride or bus trip, but a long walk.

Within an 800 m walk0%
Within 1.6 km0%

How it's changing

Building permits issued each year, a leading signal of new homes and renovations.

*2026 is year to date.

What the building permits are for11

Teardowns and infill
21 a year
Demolitions plus new semis, rowhouses and townhouses: construction noise, dumpsters and change on the street
Secondary suites
2 a year
New basement, garage and garden suites: more rental homes and more cars on the street
Home improvements
8.8 a year
Renovations, additions and decks: owners investing in homes they plan to keep

Safety12

Reported incidents in the last 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026), per 1,000 residents, compared with the median of 177 Calgary communities.

Reported crime
27.6
per 1,000 · above the 13.5 median
Disorder calls
74.2
per 1,000 · above the 32.1 median
Violent crime
5.4
per 1,000 · median 2.3
Property crime
22.2
per 1,000 · median 10.6
  • Reported crime runs about 2× the median Calgary community: 27.6 incidents per 1,000 residents a year, versus 13.5.
  • The most common reported crime is theft from vehicles, 33% of the total. 80% of incidents are property crime.
  • Crime has fallen since 2020: 152 reported incidents in 2025 versus 196 in 2020.
  • So far in 2026 (January to September) there have been 120 incidents, about the same as the same months of 2025.
  • Busy main streets, transit and nightlife bring in visitors, and incidents are counted where they happen, not where people live.

What gets reported

Top crime types in the rate, same period.

Theft from vehicles33%
Vehicle theft16%
Assault10%
Break-in: garage or shed10%
Break-in: home9%

Disorder calls

Most common non-criminal calls to police.

Unwanted Guest30%
Suspicious Person26%
Disturbance16%
Mental Health Concern8%

Reported crime by year

*2026 is year to date.

Sources and notes

  1. Source: road-network routing from OpenStreetMap-based OSRM servers (car and bike profiles), pulled October 2026, from the centre of the community's boundary (City of Calgary) to each destination. Drive times assume free-flowing roads with no traffic, so weekday rush hour can take noticeably longer; bike times follow cycling-suitable roads and paths at an average speed and ignore hills and winter. Transit times are not included because we don't yet have a schedule-based calculation. Destinations: Downtown (Stephen Avenue); Foothills Medical Centre and University of Calgary; Calgary International Airport; Southeast industrial (Barlow Trail and 50 Ave SE). ↩
  2. Source: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), counted October 19, 2026. Counts places inside the community or within 400 m (about a 5-minute walk) of its edge, in a straight line. Volunteers map OpenStreetMap, so some places may be missing and counts are a guide, not a census. Supermarkets are tagged shop=supermarket; cafés amenity=cafe and shop=bakery; pharmacies and clinics amenity=pharmacy and amenity=clinic; playgrounds and dog parks leisure=playground and leisure=dog_park. Medians are across the communities in this guide. ↩
  3. Source: Current Year Property Assessments. Assessments estimate market value on July 1, 2025, so they trail current sale prices, and they are not MLS benchmark prices (CREB benchmarks are not open data). Types are grouped from the City's property-use codes; see About. ↩
  4. Source: City of Calgary 2026 tax rates. 2026 residential rate 0.665% of assessed value (City 0.38906% + provincial education 0.27593%), applied to this community's median assessment for each home type. Homeowners pay tax on the assessed value, not the sale price. Excludes utility bills, local improvement charges, grants and credits, and anything above or below the median. ↩
  5. Source: Government of Alberta, Land Titles and Surveys fee schedule. 2026 rules, applied to this community's median assessment. A mortgage adds its own registration fee on the loan amount on the same $50 + $5 per $5,000 scale. Legal fees, title insurance, inspection and adjustments are extra. ↩
  6. Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile (98-401-X2021006), dissemination areas. Income is median total household income in 2020 (before tax). The share spending 30% or more of income on shelter combines owner and tenant households; 30% is the standard affordability line. Shelter costs for owners include mortgage payments, property tax and utilities; for tenants, rent and utilities. 2021 Census, a 25% sample, so small neighbourhoods carry some error. Statistics Canada publishes these for small census blocks, not communities, so each figure combines the blocks whose centre lies inside the community, weighted by households, and is approximate; blocks that straddle a boundary can shift it a little. ↩
  7. Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey, Housing Market Information Portal. These are zone averages across all units in apartment buildings of three or more units, not a figure for South Calgary alone, and they are not asking rents. Houses, basement suites and condos rented out by owners are not included. Zones are large, so neighbouring communities can share one figure. ↩
  8. Sources: City of Calgary Open Data, Regulatory Flood Map (the version now in the Land Use Bylaw; a proposed update is still under review) and Noise Exposure Forecast Contours. Percentages are shares of the community's land area, not of homes, from a grid sample. They don't cover groundwater or sewer backup flooding. Hail and wildfire smoke affect the whole city; see the Calgary page. ↩
  9. Schools: City of Calgary Schools. Students: Alberta Education enrolment, 2023-24 (2019-20 for the trend). Online, outreach and special programs are left out, and recently opened schools may be missing. ↩
  10. Distances are in a straight line, not along streets, measured from points across the community to the closest of the 45 CTrain stations. Rivers, rail lines and highways can make the real walk longer. The Green Line is not included because it is not yet open. Source: City of Calgary Transit LRT Stations. ↩
  11. Source: City of Calgary Building Permits, permits issued 2021–2025, averaged per year, pulled October 2026. Teardowns and infill: residential demolition permits (house or semi-detached) plus new semi-detached, rowhouse, townhouse and attached-unit permits. Secondary suites: below-grade suites, garage dwelling units and garden suites. Home improvements: residential alterations, additions, repairs, decks and basement development, excluding suites, garages and apartment work. Each unit of a semi-detached pair has its own permit. New detached houses and commercial permits are not in these three groups, and a permit is not proof that work was finished. ↩
  12. Source: Calgary Police Service, Community Safety Data (2020 to Q3 2026). Rates use estimated mid-2025 population. Incidents are counted where they occur. Counts of 1 to 5 are rounded by CPS. How we calculate this. ↩