Canada’s Changing Building & Energy Codes: Implications for Alberta’s Residential Real Estate Sector

As gatekeepers of the built environment, the real estate industry will bear the most significant impact and will hold the highest responsibility as new building codes are adopted and enforced. The sector also plays a key role in building decarbonization efforts, particularly in sharing and communicating information across stakeholder groups.

Despite its important perspective and role, the needs of the real estate sector – and real estate professionals in particular – have been overlooked when it comes to raising awareness, providing educational opportunities, and building capacity around energy literacy, changing policies, building code compliance and decarbonization.

For example, when residential real estate professionals assist their clients in what could be the most significant purchase or investment of their lives, lacking this information carries substantial financial and reputational risks.

Now is the time – as the new codes are being developed and before they are mandatory – that the creation and dissemination of tools and resources for the real estate sector will be most effective and impactful to support and future-proof the industry.

This project builds on the 2022 project: 2050 Net Zero Targets & Changing Building Codes: Implications to Existing Building Owners & Alberta Real Estate Professionals.