The three kinds
- Titled. The stall has its own title and you own it, much like the unit. It can generally be sold or transferred, sometimes separately from the unit. This is the strongest form.
- Assigned (exclusive use of common property). You have the exclusive right to use a specific stall, but you do not own it — the corporation does, and your right comes through the bylaws. In practice it usually behaves like ownership, but the corporation retains more control.
- Leased or rented. The stall is rented, from the corporation or a third party, and it may not transfer to you at all on a sale. This is the one that causes problems.
Why the difference matters
A titled stall is an asset. It has value, it appears on title, and it is yours to keep or sell. An assigned stall generally transfers with the unit but sits under the corporation's rules. A leased stall is an ongoing cost that might end, and if it does not transfer you may find yourself owning a downtown condo with nowhere to park.
In central Calgary this is not academic. Parking is genuinely scarce in some buildings and areas, and a unit without secure parking sells to a materially smaller pool of buyers.
Check the title and the documents, not the listing. "Parking included" in listing copy has meant all three of these things, and the difference can be tens of thousands of dollars.
Does underground parking add value?
In this climate, yes — meaningfully. A car that starts, that you do not scrape, and that is not exposed to hail is worth a great deal through a Calgary winter and summer. Underground and heated parkades are among the more reliable value features in a condo, and among the first things buyers filter for.
Two things worth checking: whether the parkade has had water or membrane problems, which are expensive and a classic special-assessment trigger, and whether your stall is a genuinely usable size rather than a compact space beside a pillar.
Storage lockers work the same way
Lockers are titled, assigned or leased on exactly the same basis, and are not automatically included with a unit. Confirm whether there is one, which one it is, and how it is held.
In a smaller condo a locker matters more than buyers expect — it is where the seasonal tires, the bikes and the Christmas decorations live in a home without a basement or a garage.
What “exclusive use” actually means
Exclusive use is the middle option, and it is the one buyers most often mistake for ownership. The stall or locker is common property — the corporation owns it — and what you hold is the exclusive right to use that specific one. The right comes from the corporation’s documents rather than from a title, so a title search on your unit will not show it.
In daily life it behaves much like ownership. The differences show up at the edges:
- The corporation keeps control of the space. It maintains the structure, and its bylaws can set rules about what may be parked or stored there, whether you may sublet it, and to whom.
- You generally cannot sell it separately. A titled stall can be transferred on its own in many buildings; an exclusive-use one moves with the unit.
- Reassignment is a real possibility in some corporations — swaps between owners, or a board reallocating stalls after work in the parkade. Whether that can happen is a bylaw question.
- It has to be proven, not assumed. Which stall and which locker attach to the unit you are buying should be confirmed in the corporation’s documents and on the estoppel certificate, not from the listing or from what the seller usually parks in.
Storage lockers sit on exactly the same three-way split, and exclusive use is the most common of the three for lockers. The same check applies: is there one, which one, and how is it held? Read the bylaws on parking and storage before conditions come off — it is a five-minute job that occasionally saves a purchase.