If you own a rental in Calgary and the tenant is still in it, you’ve probably read that a tenanted home sells for 5 to 10 per cent less, and that you need a buyer who plans to move in before you can end a month-to-month tenancy. The first claim doesn’t match what sold here last year, though far more tenanted listings expired. The second is wrong if you’re selling one house, one side of a semi-detached pair or one condo unit.
This post covers what Alberta’s tenancy law lets you do when you sell, how showings work with a tenant at home, what happens to the deposit, and how tenanted listings did over the last year.
None of this is legal advice. Your lawyer reads your lease and your contract. This is what I’d want you to know before we talk about a price.
The short version
- A sale doesn’t end a tenancy. The tenant stays until the tenancy is ended the way the Act allows.
- You can’t give sale notice until the deal is firm, and the buyer has to ask for it in writing.
- The buyer doesn’t have to move in if the sale is one detached house, one side of a semi-detached pair or one condo unit.
- A monthly tenant gets three full tenancy months. Plan the closing date around that.
- A fixed-term lease can’t be ended early because you’re selling. It goes with the house.
- A tenant can’t refuse a showing that follows the rules, and the rules are specific.
- Tenanted homes that sold went for about what vacant ones did. Far more tenanted listings didn’t sell.
What the last year of listings shows
Every MLS listing records whether the home is owner-occupied, tenanted or vacant.
Tenanted listings expired far more often
| Listings that expired without selling | Tenanted | Owner-occupied | Vacant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | 32.3% | 15.6% | 16.2% |
| Semi-detached | 23.4% | 11.1% | 15.0% |
| Townhouse | 32.8% | 16.3% | 19.0% |
| Apartment condo | 43.3% | 25.6% | 28.2% |
These are Calgary listings from April 2025 to March 2026 that either sold or expired. Listings cancelled before they ran out are not counted either way. Homes built in 2023 or later, and show homes, are left out.
About one tenanted detached listing in three expired, roughly twice the rate for owner-occupied and vacant ones. That gap held for older and newer houses and at every price level. Tenanted townhouses and apartment condos also expired more often in every era and price range, though the gap was narrow for ones built before 1980. For semi-detached homes most of it came from ones built since 2000.
The ones that sold went for about what vacant homes did
The table measures each sale against the City’s 2026 assessment of that home, because a tenanted home can simply be listed lower.
| Typical sale price, as a share of the 2026 assessment | Tenanted | Owner-occupied | Vacant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | 95.9% | 97.4% | 95.3% |
| Semi-detached | 94.3% | 96.4% | 95.4% |
| Townhouse | 91.7% | 94.8% | 93.1% |
| Apartment condo | 94.0% | 95.8% | 93.4% |
Sales that closed from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026. Homes built in 2023 or later, and show homes, are left out. The 2026 assessment estimated each home’s value on July 1, 2025.
Against vacant homes, the tenanted ones were within about a point and a half either way. Tenanted detached houses came out level with vacant ones, and tenanted apartment condos slightly ahead. For no property type did the gap come close to 5 per cent.
Against owner-occupied homes, tenanted detached houses, townhouses and apartment condos sold for 1.5 to 3 points less of their assessment. Vacant homes also sold below owner-occupied ones, by 1.7 to 2.4 points, so the gap isn’t peculiar to tenanted homes.
On time to sell, half the tenanted detached houses sold within 26 days, against 20 for owner-occupied and 25 for vacant. Townhouses were slower: 37 days tenanted, 28 owner-occupied and 36 vacant. Apartment condos took 36 days whether a tenant or the owner lived there.
What the numbers don’t say
They don’t say why. The tenanted detached houses were older (the typical one was built in 1976, against 1998 for owner-occupied), and the assessment may not reflect the inside of a house. And the sale figures describe the tenanted homes that sold. A third of the tenanted detached listings expired without selling.
What I take from it: a tenanted home that sells doesn’t have to sell at a steep discount. Getting it sold is the harder part.
Two ways to sell a rental
Sell with the tenant in place. The buyer takes over the tenancy. That suits a buyer who wants a rental, or one who is happy to wait for the lease to end.
Have the home empty by closing. Either the tenancy ends before you list (a fixed term runs out, or the tenant agrees to leave), or it ends after the sale is firm, using the sale rule below. Ending it first gives you a vacant home to show. Ending it after the sale keeps the rent coming in while you’re on the market, but the closing date has to leave room for the notice period.
Which one fits depends on the kind of tenancy you have.
If the tenancy is month to month
When a sale lets you end it
Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act only lets a landlord end a periodic tenancy for a reason the law lists. A sale is one of them, under section 2(2)(b) of the Ministerial Regulation, and it has three parts:
- The deal has to be firm. The landlord must have an agreement to sell “in which all conditions precedent in the agreement have been satisfied or waived.” A listing isn’t enough, and neither is a conditional offer.
- The buyer has to ask in writing for the tenant to be given notice.
- Either the buyer or a relative of the buyer intends to live there, or the agreement is to sell “one detached or semi-detached dwelling unit or one condominium unit.”
If you’re selling one detached house, one side of a semi-detached pair or one condo unit, the buyer doesn’t have to move in. A firm deal and the buyer’s written request are enough. The move-in requirement applies to everything else, such as a whole duplex or a small apartment building. A townhouse that isn’t a condo unit isn’t clearly covered by those words, so ask your lawyer.
If the house has a secondary suite with its own tenant, ask your lawyer how the rule applies before you build a closing date around it. The Regulation doesn’t say.
How long the notice is
For a monthly tenancy the notice period is “3 consecutive tenancy months.” The landlord’s notice has to be served on or before the first day of a tenancy month, and it takes effect on the last day of the third month. A tenancy month starts on the day rent is due, unless the lease names another day.
Here is how that works with rent due on the 1st:
| Notice served | Tenancy ends |
|---|---|
| On or before December 1, 2026 | February 28, 2027 |
| December 2, 2026 | March 31, 2027 |
A day late costs a month. And the tenancy ends at noon on that last day, unless you and the tenant agree to another time.
So if conditions come off in mid-November and the buyer wants the home empty, the earliest vacant possession is the end of February. A buyer who wants to close in January can’t get a vacant home in January through the notice rule.
The notice has to be in writing and signed, and it has to give the reason, identify the home and state the date the tenancy ends. It’s served in person or by registered mail, and registered mail isn’t served the day you post it, so if the 1st is close, hand it over. A weekly tenancy needs one full tenancy week, and any rental period between a week and a year counts as monthly.
If the tenant agrees to leave
A monthly tenant can end the tenancy with one full tenancy month’s notice of their own. If the tenant agrees to leave, have them serve that notice in writing, and talk to your lawyer before you put a date in a purchase contract that depends on it.
If the sale falls through
If the tenant has left on a sale notice and the sale then collapses, talk to your lawyer. The Act says a landlord who ends a tenancy for one of its listed reasons and then doesn’t use the home for that reason is in contravention of the Act.
If the tenancy has a fixed term
A fixed-term lease ends on its end date, and a sale doesn’t change that. The Act gives no sale reason for ending a fixed term early.
It also goes with the house. The Act counts a new owner as the landlord, and under the Land Titles Act a title is subject to a lease of three years or less where the tenant is living there. The buyer takes the house with the lease.
When the term ends, the tenancy ends, unless the lease says it continues or you and the tenant act as if it does (the tenant keeps paying and you keep taking rent). Then it becomes month to month.
So if the lease runs past the closing date you’d want, you have three choices: sell to a buyer who will take the tenant, set the closing date after the lease ends, or ask the tenant whether they’d agree to leave early. The Government of Alberta’s guidance is that a fixed term can end early if both of you agree.
The contract has to match the tenancy
A Calgary case shows what happens when it doesn’t. In Covey v Dueck, 2025 ABKB 78, the house had a tenant whose tenancy ran to the end of May 2023, and the listing said so. The contract, on the Alberta Real Estate Association’s standard form, set completion for February 24, 2023, with vacant possession, and made the cost of ending an existing tenancy the seller’s. The court held the seller to the contract as written. In its words, the buyer “was entitled to make an offer that put the risk of having the Tenant removed” on the seller.
The listing saying there’s a tenant doesn’t change what the contract says. If the tenant is staying, or leaving after closing, the contract has to say so, and your lawyer should check the wording.
Showings with a tenant at home
The Act lets a landlord enter without the tenant’s consent “for the purpose of showing the premises, whether directly or through a real estate broker, to prospective purchasers.” It sets the conditions:
- Written notice at least 24 hours before the entry, signed by you or your agent.
- The notice states the reason and names the date and time. The time can be a window “of reasonable duration,” with a set start and end.
- Between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Not on a holiday. Under Alberta’s Interpretation Act every Sunday counts as a holiday, along with the days it lists, which include Easter Monday and December 26. A tenant whose day of worship isn’t Sunday can tell you so in writing, and then that day is off limits instead of Sunday.
The notice is served the same way as other notices under the Act: handed to the tenant, or by registered mail. A tenant can’t refuse a showing that meets those rules. With the tenant’s consent, any time works.
The deposit and the rent
The deposit goes with the house. Under section 47 of the Act, a buyer “has the rights and is subject to the obligations of the previous landlord with respect to a security deposit.” The buyer has to give the tenant a notice of the new landlord and a statement of the deposit and interest owed as of the purchase. How the money moves from you to the buyer is set in the purchase contract and handled by the lawyers.
Check the interest. Alberta’s rate is 0 per cent for 2026, but it was 0.5 per cent for 2025 and 1.6 per cent for 2024. Interest for those years is owed if it hasn’t been paid. It’s due every year unless you and the tenant agreed in writing to pay it at the end of the tenancy.
Rent for the closing month. Ask your lawyer how it’s split with the buyer.
Before you list
- Find the lease. Is it fixed term or month to month, when does it end, and what day is rent due?
- Check the deposit. The amount, when it was paid, and the interest owed.
- Decide which way you’re selling, with the tenant or without, and pick a closing date the notice rules allow.
- Talk to the tenant before the sign goes up, and agree how showings will work.
- Ask your lawyer about the contract wording for possession, and about the suite if there is one.
- Get a price range. The home valuation page gives you a rough one on the spot. It’s a starting point, and it doesn’t know there’s a tenant.
Common questions
Can a landlord end a tenancy to sell a house in Alberta?
Not because the house is listed, and not because it is sold conditionally. Under Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Ministerial Regulation, a sale is a reason to end a periodic tenancy once the purchase agreement is firm, with every condition satisfied or waived, and the buyer has asked in writing for the tenant to be given notice. A fixed-term lease cannot be ended early because of a sale. It runs to its end date unless the landlord and tenant both agree otherwise.
Does the buyer have to move in for the tenant to be given notice?
Not when the sale is one detached house, one semi-detached unit or one condo unit. For those, the Regulation needs a firm agreement and the buyer’s written request, and nothing about who will live there. For any other sale, the buyer or a relative of the buyer has to intend to live in the home. If the house has a secondary suite, ask a lawyer how the rule applies before you count on it.
How much notice does a tenant get when a house is sold in Alberta?
For a monthly tenancy, three full tenancy months. The landlord’s notice has to be served on or before the first day of a tenancy month and takes effect on the last day of the third month. If rent is due on the first and the notice is served by December 1, 2026, the tenancy ends on February 28, 2027. Served on December 2, it ends on March 31, 2027. A weekly tenancy needs one full tenancy week.
Can a tenant refuse showings in Alberta?
Not a showing that follows the rules. The Residential Tenancies Act lets a landlord, or the landlord’s real estate brokerage, enter without the tenant’s consent to show the home to prospective buyers, if the tenant gets signed written notice at least 24 hours ahead that states the reason and the date and time. The entry has to be between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and not on a holiday, and under Alberta’s Interpretation Act every Sunday counts as a holiday. The time can be given as a window of reasonable length.
What happens to a fixed-term lease when the house is sold?
The buyer takes the house subject to it. The Residential Tenancies Act counts a new owner as the landlord, and the Land Titles Act makes a title subject to a lease of three years or less where the tenant is living there. If the lease runs past the closing date, the house sells with the tenant in it unless the tenant agrees to leave early.
What happens to the tenant's security deposit when the house sells?
It goes with the house. The buyer takes on the seller’s obligations for the deposit and must give the tenant a notice of the new landlord and a statement of the deposit and interest owed. Alberta’s interest rate on deposits is 0 per cent for 2026, and interest for earlier years is owed if it hasn’t been paid. How the money moves from seller to buyer is handled in the purchase contract and by the lawyers.
Do tenanted homes sell for less in Calgary?
The ones that sold did about as well as vacant homes, but a much larger share of tenanted listings expired. Over the twelve months to September 2026, tenanted homes that sold went for within about a point and a half of vacant homes when both are measured against the City’s assessment. Tenanted detached houses, townhouses and apartment condos went for 1.5 to 3 points less than owner-occupied ones. Of tenanted detached listings from April 2025 to March 2026 that sold or expired, a third expired, about twice the rate for owner-occupied and vacant ones.
Selling a rental with a tenant in it?
Tell me about the home and the lease. I'll give you a range to price from and work out which closing dates the notice rules allow. You don't have to list with me to ask.
