Calgary's residential sales are continuing to show positive growth.

Sales increased by 15 per cent on a year-to-date basis in 2012, and were up eight per cent this November compared to last. With nearly eight consecutive months of double-digit, year-over-year sales growth, the city's inventory levels are decreasing, as new listings haven't been able to keep up. However according to CREB®'s monthly stats, the ratio between sales and inventory shows the market remains in balanced territory.

Proposed downtown developments in Calgary will be more than welcome as the city has an office vacancy rate of only 5.4 per cent.

According to Barclay Street Real Estate's Office Market Review, year-to-date office absorption in Calgary as of August was 2.38 million sq. ft. due to the addition of 1.84 million sq. ft. from the recently completed Bow Building.

Calgary's biggest mall might be getting a whole lot bigger. Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, owner of Chinook Centre in southwest Calgary, has announced expansion plans that would add one million sq. ft. to the mall's existing 1.4 million sq. ft.

The news comes just after Nordstrom's announced they would be moving into the mall in the fall of 2014, marking the American retailer's first foray into the Canadian market.

New York. Paris. Rome. Calgary? Although not normally lumped in with the great cities of the world, according to a recent report, when it comes to return on property investment, Calgary is the greatest of them all.

The 2012 IPD Global Cities Report, which compares four property types (retail, office, apartment, industrial) across 60 international cities, listed Calgary as the very best city in the world to invest in real estate.