Unlocking Density: Impacts of Small-Scale Rezoning on Housing Supply and Property Values in Edmonton

Wenbei Zhang

No 404515, 2026 Annual Meeting, July 26 - 28, 2026, Kansas City, Missouri from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: In January 2024 the City of Edmonton enacted Zoning Bylaw 20001, replacing its several low-density residential zones into a single Small Scale Residential (RS) zone that generally permits a broader range of small-scale forms, with interior sites capped at eight dwellings and additional allowances on qualifying corner sites. I study how this city-wide upzoning affected the housing market using transaction- and permitlevel data (permits 2009–2025; sales 2021–2025). Because the reform took effect on a sharp, common date, I trace its effects with a dynamic event study and a regression discontinuity in time that fix the treated geography to land zoned RS today, and I add a difference-in-differences against non-upzoned detached homes to net out Alberta’s coincident demand boom. Three results emerge. First, quality-adjusted detached prices in RS areas show no pre-trend and then rise after the reform; the gross rise is large (≈17% within six quarters), but once city-wide demand is differenced out the upzoning-specific capitalization is a more modest 3–7%—still consistent with rapid pricing of redevelopment option value. Second, residential permitting and especially dwelling units added respond more slowly, with a flat pre-trend and a ramp that becomes visible about ten months after the reform; by late 2025 the RS area had recorded over 550 “multiplex” (3–8 unit) permits adding roughly 3,600 units. Third, the supply response concentrates spatially in mature, central neighbourhoods. The findings portray upzoning as a pipeline policy: development rights and their capitalized value appear immediately, while delivered housing follows through a slower permitting and construction process.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea26:404515

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.404515

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