Alberta's reserve funds, per door

The median Alberta condo corporation holds about $5,900 per unit in its reserve fund and adds about $1,500 per unit a year.

An Alberta condominium corporation has been required for two decades to commission a reserve fund study at least every five years, adopt a plan for funding what the study finds, and report to owners on the fund every year. [1] [2] The fund pays for the major repair and replacement of common property: roofs, boilers, elevators, parkade membranes, siding and windows. [1] [3] We took the latest reserve fund balance reported for each Alberta corporation in our sample, most of them from financial statements and annual reports dated 2024 to 2026, and divided it by the number of units.

$5,900 a door, in a very wide band

The median Alberta corporation holds about $5,900 per unit in its reserve fund. The middle half of corporations sit between about $3,500 and $9,600 a door, and the whole fund at the median corporation is about $470,000, spread over roughly 80 units. That band is wide because the balance is a snapshot: a corporation that just replaced its roof sits low, and one that has been saving for a boiler for six years sits high. Neither number says anything about the building on its own; the study behind it does.

The spread is close to flat. About one corporation in seven holds under $2,000 per unit, about one in five holds $2,000 to $4,000, and then each band from $4,000 up to $12,000 holds roughly one corporation in six. About one in seven holds $12,000 per unit or more. Put differently, a buyer looking at an Alberta condo with $3,000 a door in reserve is looking at something ordinary, and so is one looking at $10,000.

Calgary holds a little more than Edmonton

The median Calgary corporation holds about $6,600 per unit, with the middle half between about $4,200 and $9,700. The median Edmonton corporation holds about $5,700, with a wider middle half from about $3,100 to $9,700. The top of the band is the same in both cities; the difference is at the bottom, where Edmonton has more corporations in the lower bands. Both cities carry the same rules, so the gap is about building stock and where each corporation is in its repair cycle, not about the law.

Contributions: $1,500 a door, a quarter of the budget

The balance is only half of the picture. In the latest approved operating budgets, every Alberta corporation in our sample carries a transfer to the reserve fund, at a median of about $1,500 per unit per year, with the middle half between about $940 and $2,100. That is about 26% of the operating budget at the median corporation, whose whole budget works out to about $5,700 per unit per year. Set the balance next to the contribution and the median fund holds about four years of contributions; the middle half hold between about two and six years' worth.

For context, the median BC strata holds about $4,000 per unit in its contingency reserve fund and contributes about $790 per unit a year, as we set out in BC votes, Alberta's board decides. Alberta corporations hold about half as much again per door and put in nearly twice as much each year. We would not read that as one province being better run: Alberta has had a mandatory study-and-fund cycle since the early 2000s, its stock is mostly wood-frame low-rise, and its boards can top up the fund with an assessment without an owner vote. In the Alberta minutes we read, the median special assessment works out to about $2,500 per door.

A buyer looking at $3,000 a door in reserve is looking at something ordinary in Alberta. So is one looking at $10,000.

The studies behind the numbers

More than four Alberta corporations in five have a completed reserve fund study on file, about one in ten has a study in progress, and about one in twenty is collecting quotes for one. The completed studies were mostly done between 2019 and 2025, which is what a five-year cycle looks like when it is being kept. The regulation requires the study to look at least 30 years ahead, and the board to approve a funding plan based on it and give owners a copy before collecting under it. [2] The plan sets the contribution; the balance is what the plan has produced so far.

What to do with this

• If you are buying: ask for the reserve fund study, the reserve fund plan and the latest annual reserve fund report, not just the balance. [1] Divide the balance by the number of units and put it next to the band above, then read what the study says is due in the next five years.

• If you are on the board: the middle half of Alberta corporations hold $3,500 to $9,600 a door and contribute $940 to $2,100 a year. The study, not the median, says what your building needs; the median only says where you sit.

• If you are moving from BC: the document that matters most changes. In BC it is the levy history and the minutes; in Alberta it is the reserve fund study and the plan.

How we counted. Based on 100+ samples drawn from our pool of Alberta condo reviews. Figures come from the financial statements, budgets, annual reports and minutes in those samples, mostly 2024 to 2026, with Calgary and Edmonton making up most of them. Each corporation's latest reported reserve fund balance and latest approved whole-building budget are used. Per-unit values divide by the corporation's total unit count, so they are averages per door rather than any one owner's share. Figures are medians and the middle half (p25 to p75), rounded to two significant figures; cities with too few corporations to summarise are not shown. BC figures quoted for context come from our earlier BC-versus-Alberta post. No building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.

Further reading

1. Reserve funds, Government of Alberta

2. Condominium Property Regulation, Alta Reg 168/2000, sections 23 to 38, CanLII

3. Reserve fund: condo corporations in Alberta, Kahane Law Office

4. Beyond the reserve fund: expert answers, Canadian Condominium Institute, North Alberta Chapter