Why I prefer a house over a condo

Let me start with a confession: I like condos. I've owned one. For the right person, at the right stage of life, a condo is a genuinely great home. Lock the door, get on a plane, come back a week later, everything is fine. No shovelling. No lawn. Everything close to downtown or the C-Train.

But when families I work with ask me, honestly, what I'd choose for a first home in Calgary — especially a family that might grow, or want lola to move in someday, or rent out a basement suite one day for mortgage help — I usually say the same thing: a house, if you can make it work. Here's why.

Fair to condos first

Condos genuinely make sense in a few situations:

• Single or couple, no kids planned soon. The extra space of a house is a real cost, not a real benefit.
• Downtown-first lifestyle. Work downtown, socialize downtown, don't own a car — a Beltline or East Village condo can be a wonderful life.
• Low maintenance is a priority. Long shifts, travel, disability, or just no interest in yard work — the condo model absorbs all of that.
• Lower entry price. In Calgary, a starter condo can be $100,000+ cheaper than a starter detached house. If that's the difference between owning this year and owning in three years, it matters.

If any of these fit you strongly, don't let anyone talk you out of a condo. They're real homes, and plenty of families have built beautiful lives in them.

The case for a house

With that said, here's why I lean house for most Filipino families in Calgary:

1. You control the asset

Own a condo, and you're partly at the mercy of a condo board, a property manager, and a group of neighbours who vote on your budget. Most of the time this is fine. When it's not, it's expensive.

Condo fees drift up over time — sometimes dramatically. Reserve funds get underfunded. And then a building needs new windows, or a new roof, or foundation work, and the board votes a special assessment. This is a one-time bill split across owners. In Calgary, $10,000–$50,000+ special assessments are not rare on older buildings. Sometimes they're higher.

Own a house, and every one of those costs is still yours — but you decide the timing, the contractor, the quality, and you can plan and save at your own pace.

Land appreciates. Buildings depreciate. Own the dirt if you can.

2. The math of land vs building

This is the single biggest reason detached houses have historically outperformed condos over long periods in Calgary. When you buy a condo, you're mostly buying air — a slice of a building that is depreciating and needs maintenance. When you buy a house, a large chunk of what you own is the land itself, which doesn't wear out.

Over 20–30 years, that difference compounds. Buildings age, need renovations, become outdated. Land in a good neighbourhood just quietly gains value as the city grows around it.

3. Space for multigenerational living

This one matters more for our families than the average financial article accounts for. A house means:

• Room for lola or lolo to move in when they need care, instead of a facility.
• A basement or main-floor suite for a cousin newly landed in Canada while they get settled.
• Room for the kids to have friends over, for gatherings, for the cooking that makes a house feel like home.
• Storage — for the balikbayan boxes, the extra rice cooker, the folding tables that come out for birthdays.

A well-designed condo can do some of this. But most can't, and even when they can, bylaws often restrict how many people can live there, or how you use the space.

4. Basement suites as mortgage helpers

Where legal and permitted, a basement suite in your house is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools available to a first-time buyer. Rental income of $1,000–$1,700+ per month can:

• Cover a large chunk of your mortgage payment.
• Let you buy a bigger or better-located home than you could otherwise afford.
• Provide a place for family — a newly-landed cousin, a sibling in school, aging parents — with dignity.
• Boost the resale value of the home itself.

A note of caution: Calgary has specific rules about legal secondary suites — permits, egress windows, fire separation, parking. An "illegal" basement suite can void insurance and cause resale problems. Always confirm the suite status before you buy, and if you plan to add one, talk to the city and a good contractor early.

Honest costs of houses

I don't want to pretend houses are all upside. Owning a house means:

• You are the maintenance department. Roof (~$8,000–$15,000 every 20–25 years). Furnace (~$5,000–$8,000 every 15–20 years). Hot water tank. Fence. Windows. Foundation.
• You are the snow department. Calgary winters are real.
• You are the yard department. Or you pay someone.
• Budget 1–2% of home value per year for upkeep. On a $600,000 home that's $6,000–$12,000 annually. Some years you spend nothing, some years you spend $20,000. Average it out.

The upside is that all of this becomes an investment in an asset you control. The downside is that if your life doesn't have the time or the buffer for it, it's a genuine drag.

The middle ground: townhomes

For many first-time buyers who want more space than a condo but can't quite stretch to a detached house, a townhome can be a great compromise. You own the ground you're on, you often get a small yard, and you avoid a lot of condo-tower cost structure.

Watch for one thing: many townhome complexes are still legally condominiums, which means they carry condo fees and special assessment risk too. Read the reserve fund study before you offer. A well-managed townhome complex is a lovely first home. A poorly-managed one is a condo problem in a house-shaped costume.

A simple decision framework

1. Single or couple, downtown-first, low-maintenance life? A condo can be right.
2. Family or planning one, want stability, want the option for multigenerational living? Lean house — even if it means starting further out or starting with a townhome.
3. Can you tolerate the maintenance and the yard? If yes, house strengthens. If not, condo or a low-maintenance townhome.
4. Do the numbers still work with condo fees rising 5% a year? Or with maintenance eating 1.5% of home value? Run both scenarios before you sign.

The version I really believe

If you can make a modest house work — even one further out, even one that needs work, even one shared with family for the first few years — it will usually build more long-term wealth and more long-term flexibility than a condo of similar price. And for the kind of families we serve, where "home" often means three generations under one roof at some point, that flexibility is worth more than a shiny lobby and a rooftop patio.

Buy the home that fits the life you're actually living — and the one you hope to live. That's the whole answer.

This is general education, not personalized financial or investment advice. Talk to a licensed advisor about your own situation.