Lake property an affordable Alberta possibility

Alberta’s recreational market is the priciest in Canada, but that’s not the case for cottages close to the Edmonton area where average prices are more reasonable — that is, if you can find a listing to buy.

“There is an abundance of these smaller communities where you can get into a property on a small lake in northern Alberta about three hours’ drive away for about $250,000,” says Tom Shearer, broker/owner of Noralta Real Estate in Edmonton.

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“But as soon as you get closer to the city, it’s more like $500,000 and up.”

Those favoured Edmonton weekend haunts — Wabamun Lake, Lac Ste. Anne and Pigeon Lake — are among the more pricey lake communities in Alberta, in part because few listings come to the market. And when they do, competition among buyers is generally stiff, Shearer says.

The recent Royal LePage 2025 Spring Recreational Property Report suggests recreational single-family detached homes — or cabins by another name — in Alberta will climb about two per cent to nearly $1.3 million this year, driven by Canmore, a mountain town far from any lake.

There, the average price of a single-family home is among the highest in Canada, trailing only Vancouver — certainly not a vacation hotspot for rec properties — and Whistler — Canada’s premier ski destination.

Given the high price in Canmore, which has far more sales than other Alberta recreational markets, Alberta’s overall average price growth this year will trail other less costly regions, like Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Atlantic Canada where average prices of a cabin are about a third of the Alberta average price.

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“What was interesting this year is the trends across the board were quite reflective of the urban markets in those same areas,” says Anne-Elise Cugliari Allegritti, national spokesperson for Royal LePage.

To that end, Ontario and British Columbia are forecast to see modest price growth like Alberta. The average single-family detached home price in recreational parts of B.C. is forecast to climb two per cent this year to about $952,000. In Ontario, prices are forecast to climb one per cent with an average cost for a single-family detached recreational home expected to exceed $647,000.

Both B.C. and Ontario are also high-priced residential markets that are seeing less growth amid economic uncertainty and higher mortgage rates, she adds.

Even in Edmonton, Canmore remains a key recreational market for people, Shearer says.

“The first thing that happens is someone visits the area and decides they love it.”

Canmore condominiums are generally more affordable with an average price of about $648,000, up less than two per cent in 2024 from 2023, the report notes.

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Pigeon Lake condominium apartments — where more supply is being added, Shearer says — had an average price substantially lower at about $214,000, up about six per cent at the end of 2024 from 2023.

Prices for single-family home properties, lakefront, are much higher, about $551,000 in Pigeon Lake at the end of 2024. In Lac Ste. Anne, the lakefront price climbed nearly 23 per cent at the end of 2024 year over year to nearly $670,000.

Wabamun prices are even higher, the report shows, with the average lakefront price of $849,000 at the end of 2024 though down 11 per cent from the year before. And for a detached home that is not lakefront, the average price was $339,000, down more than 41 per cent.

The year-over-year price shifts up or down in these regions are not necessarily an accurate snapshot of trends, Anne-Elise Cugliari Allegritti says.

“You have to take it with a bit of a grain of salt because the data could just be a matter of low transactions where a couple of really expensive or really low-end sales could skew the data.”

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