November 13, 2026

How multi-family housing redefined the meaning of home

This is the fifth story of our 75th anniversary editorial series, celebrating the people, milestones, and moments that have shaped Qualico since its founding in 1951. By looking back on our journey, we explore the values, resilience, and innovation that continue to guide us today and into the future.

In 1969, Qualico was marketing an idea still unfamiliar to many Western Canadian homebuyers: condominium ownership.

Promotional material for Lakewood Village, an early Winnipeg condo development, declared it a “new concept in family living,” introducing a new style of home in a market where detached homes and private yards had come to define the conventional image of homeownership.

For Qualico’s multi-family builder, StreetSide Developments, the challenge today is different. It is about creating more homes within a smaller footprint while upholding the standards of privacy, quality, outdoor space, and connection to community that people expect from a place they call home.

More ways to call a place home

Qualico’s experience with multi-family housing predates Lakewood Village. The company was involved with apartment developments in Winnipeg as early as the mid-1950s, and its multi-family vertical grew alongside its homebuilding, supply chain, and land development operations in the decades that followed, focusing on Western Canada and parts of the US.

By 1990, StreetSide had been established as Qualico’s dedicated multi-family brand. Over time, the homes became more varied in step with evolving customer needs.

Multi-family ownership was once commonly regarded as a first step toward eventually purchasing a detached home. That way of thinking no longer adequately describes the market.

First-time homeowners remain an important part of it, but families, downsizers, young professionals, and mature couples are also choosing townhomes and condominiums for different reasons.

For many, the appeal lies in a lower-maintenance lifestyle. For others, living near parks, trails, employment, shops, recreation, or transportation is more attractive than maintaining a large private property.

StreetSide’s product offerings have evolved around that diversity of buyer groups. Narrower townhome designs developed in Edmonton, for example, demonstrate how StreetSide has introduced new types of housing to make more efficient use of available land.

Larger multi-bedroom homes, meanwhile, challenge the assumption that multi-family housing is designed only for singles, couples, or first-time buyers.

Multi-family housing is also playing a larger role within amenity-rich communities. In Harmony west of Calgary, StreetSide’s homes give residents access to lakes, pathways, recreation, and shared spaces of the broader community.

Getting density right

Building more homes on less land may sound straightforward. Doing it well is considerably more complicated.

Homeowners still want privacy and natural light, along with functional layouts, storage, quality construction, and outdoor spaces that work for everyday life.

This is true at The Boroughs in South Surrey, where hundreds of townhomes are complemented by indoor and outdoor amenity spaces. That relationship between the private home and the shared environment reflects a larger principle behind modern multi-family development: density works best when the spaces between homes are considered as carefully as the homes themselves.

Connection with the surrounding community matters too. Port & Mill in Coquitlam demonstrates another approach, locating condominium homes near rapid transit, shops, and established neighbourhood services. Rather than accommodating every need within a single development, connectivity allows the existing city to become an extension of the living environment.

Creating that balance is increasingly complex. A design that works in one neighbourhood may make little sense in another. The objective is not density for its own sake. It is to use land thoughtfully while creating places where people genuinely want to live.

Part of a complete community

Multi-family housing also plays an important role in creating complete communities.

Sage Creek in Winnipeg illustrates how different housing forms can work together within one neighbourhood. StreetSide’s condominiums and townhomes complement detached homes, commercial amenities, trails, recreation, and natural spaces, creating more opportunities for people with different needs and at different stages of life. That mix adds to the vitality of the community and helps support the amenities, services, and shared spaces residents enjoy.

Qualico’s broader multi-family experience extends beyond StreetSide and the condominium market. Qualico Properties manages multi-family residential properties in Winnipeg and Edmonton, while Qualico’s US operations have participated in larger rental apartment and mixed-use developments. Together, they add to the range of housing types and development models within Qualico’s broader portfolio.

In several Canadian markets, Rancho provides professional property management services that support the ongoing operation of many multi-family residential properties.

The evolving meaning of home

The scale and sophistication of multi-family homebuilding have changed considerably since Lakewood Village introduced buyers to a then-unfamiliar form of homeownership.

Today’s multi-family home must fit into a larger equation involving lifestyle, location, building performance, shared spaces, community connections, and the increasingly complex economics of delivering new housing.

For some people, home will mean a detached house and private yard. For others, it may be a family-sized townhome near a playground, a lower-maintenance home connected to trails and recreation, or a condominium within walking distance of the places that shape daily life.

For more than half of Qualico’s history, multi-family housing has evolved alongside the people choosing it. What began as a relatively unfamiliar approach to homeownership has grown into an important part of the housing mix, giving people more choices in where and how they live.