Two different things get called a home type, and mixing them up is where buyers get confused. One is the structure: is it attached to anything, and is anything above or below it. The other is the ownership: is this parcel divided by a condominium plan or not. They are independent. A row house can be a condominium or not. An apartment is almost always a condominium. A detached house on a zero lot line can be a condominium.
This page separates the two, then says what you actually own in each case.
The structural types
Statistics Canada uses nine mutually exclusive dwelling types, and the definitions have been stable since 2006. They are worth knowing because they are what census data, appraisers and most market statistics are built on.
Single-detached
A dwelling that has open space on all sides, and has no dwellings either above or below it. Two details that surprise people: a mobile home permanently fixed to a foundation is counted as single-detached, and so is a linked home, where two houses are joined only below grade at the foundation.
Semi-detached
One of two dwellings attached side by side, or back to back. Two units, sharing one wall. If there are three or more in the row, it is not semi-detached.
Row house
One of three or more dwellings joined side by side, but with no dwelling above or below. This is what almost everyone means when they say townhouse, though townhouse is a marketing word rather than a structural or legal one and can be attached to almost anything.
Apartment or flat in a duplex
One of two dwellings located one above the other. The key is the stacking. Two units side by side is semi-detached; two units stacked is a duplex.
Apartments
Counted in two buckets, buildings of five or more storeys and buildings of fewer than five storeys. Most Calgary apartment stock falls in the second bucket.
The remaining three
Other single-attached house, mobile home, and other movable dwelling. Together these are about one and a half per cent of Canadian dwellings.
How the country is actually built
| Type | 2021 | 2016 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-detached | 52.6% | 53.6% | 55.0% |
| Apartment, fewer than 5 storeys | 18.3% | 18.0% | 18.0% |
| Apartment, 5 storeys or more | 10.7% | 9.9% | 9.3% |
| Row house | 6.5% | 6.3% | 5.9% |
| Apartment or flat in a duplex | 5.5% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| Semi-detached | 5.0% | 5.0% | 4.9% |
| Movable dwelling | 1.3% | 1.3% | 1.4% |
| Other single-attached | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
The trend is slow and consistent: detached is shrinking by about one point every five years, and taller apartments plus row houses are absorbing the difference. Alberta had 1,772,670 private dwellings in total at the 2021 census.
Condominium is not the opposite of freehold
This is the single most common misunderstanding in Alberta home buying, and it is worth being precise about, because it changes how you should think about a condominium purchase.
The Condominium Property Act applies only to land held in fee simple. When a condominium plan is registered, the Registrar cancels the existing certificate of title for the parcel and issues a separate certificate of title for each unit. Each unit gets its own title, carrying that unit and the owner's share in the common property and nothing else.
So a condominium owner in Alberta holds a fee simple title, registered at Land Titles, the same instrument a detached house owner holds. Alberta Land Titles classifies an individual condominium unit's title as a normal title, alongside every other ordinary ownership title. There is a separate document type, a condominium plan sheet, but that covers the common property such as lobbies, courtyards and amenity spaces, which the condominium corporation manages.
What you are actually choosing when you choose a condominium is not weaker ownership. It is shared property and collective decision-making. Some part of the parcel is common property, everyone contributes to maintaining it, and decisions about it are made by vote rather than by you.
That is a real trade-off worth weighing carefully. It is just not the trade-off people describe when they say "at least it is freehold."
What common property means
Common property is defined as so much of the parcel as is not inside a unit shown on the plan, excluding land given over to roads, public utilities and municipal reserve. Everything not drawn as a unit is shared.
Bare land condominiums
A unit does not have to be a space inside a building. Where a condominium is not a building, a unit is land within the parcel, described by boundaries set by survey monuments. That is a bare land unit, and a development made of them is a bare land condominium.
These are common in Alberta for detached-house developments, villa complexes and some acreage subdivisions. You own the land under and around your house, you own the house, and the roads, green space and sometimes the shared services are common property. It looks exactly like an ordinary detached street and it is governed like a condominium. Always check the plan.
Who owns the windows
This one catches out owners repeatedly, and the law is unusually specific about it.
Where a unit boundary is described by a floor, a wall or a ceiling, and unless the condominium plan says otherwise, the only part of that boundary that belongs to your unit is the finishing material on the interior: the lath and plaster, panelling, gypsum board, panels, flooring material or coverings. Everything behind the drywall is common property.
And the rule for openings is split. Doors and windows on an interior wall are part of your unit. Doors and windows on an exterior wall are part of the common property, unless the plan stipulates otherwise. There is even a definition of what counts as the door: the frame and assembly components are part of it, the casing, trim and mouldings are not.
The practical consequence is that in most Alberta condominiums you cannot unilaterally replace your own exterior windows and patio doors, and equally, you are usually not personally on the hook for them. Both halves of that surprise people. Two dating rules apply: this exterior-opening rule took effect on the first of September 2000, and plans registered before the first of January 1979 are treated differently, so an older building needs its own plan read rather than an assumption.
Read the plan and the bylaws before assuming anything about a specific building. What we have described is the default that applies when the plan is silent, and plans are frequently not silent. Our condo document review guide covers what to look for.
How decisions get made
Two thresholds matter, and both are double tests rather than a single count.
An ordinary resolution needs a majority of the persons voting and more than fifty per cent of the total unit factors. A special resolution, needed for the bigger decisions, requires not less than seventy-five per cent of persons and not less than seventy-five per cent of total unit factors.
Unit factors are each unit's proportional share of the whole, and they drive both your vote weight and your share of the condominium fees. A building with a few large units and many small ones distributes power differently from one where every unit is nearly identical. The unit factor schedule is a document worth reading, not skipping.
What the different types cost in Calgary
Benchmark prices as of August 2026:
| Type | Benchmark | Change over one year |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | $744,300 | Down about 1% |
| Semi-detached | $690,500 | Up about 1% |
| Row | $415,200 | Down about 5% |
| Apartment | $295,400 | Down about 8% |
Two things stand out. Semi-detached sits within about seven per cent of detached, which is a narrow gap for giving up a wall, and it is the only segment that rose over the year. And the gap between row and apartment is wide in both price and direction, with apartment sitting roughly thirteen per cent below its August 2024 peak.
Price movement by type is not a forecast and should not be read as one. It does tell you where supply currently sits relative to demand, which is a fair thing to know before you choose a segment.
Choosing between them
The structural question is mostly about how you live. Shared walls mean shared noise. Stairs matter more at some ages than others. A yard is a pleasure and an obligation.
The ownership question is mostly about who you want making decisions and how much you want to do yourself. A condominium replaces an unpredictable stream of maintenance work and costs with a predictable monthly fee, a reserve fund, and the occasional special assessment decided by people who are not you. A non-condominium house gives you full control and full responsibility, including for the roof, at whatever moment the roof decides.
Neither is safer. They fail differently. What decides it is which failure mode you would rather live with, and how much of your own time you want to spend on a building.
When you get to the point of comparing specific properties, our rent versus buy analysis works the monthly arithmetic including condominium fees, and the affordability guide shows how those fees affect what a lender will approve.