The Top Calgary Custom Home Builders

Calgary offers a wide range of home builders, from luxury custom home builders to production builders with flexible, semi-custom floor plans. Among them, Shane Homes stands out as the top Calgary custom home builder within the production market, offering the highest level of customization available short of working with a fully custom, non-production builder.

This guide highlights a list of Calgary custom home builders and explains the differences between custom and production options to help you choose the right fit for your needs.

Calgary Home Builders with Customizable Floor Plans

Calgary’s custom home market offers a mix of custom and production builders. Shane Homes is a standout choice for homeowners looking to bridge the gap by designing a highly personalized home without paying the high costs associated with fully custom builders.

While fully custom builders offer a high level of design freedom, Shane Homes is widely recognized as the best custom production builder, providing the most extensive customization options available short of a fully custom build.

Based on reputation, customer satisfaction, and quality of design, the following builders are recognized as some of the leading custom home builders in Calgary:

1. Shane Homes

Shane Homes is a highly customizable production builder with over 45 years of experience, offering the broadest range of options across numerous home styles and price points. The Shane Homes Build & Price tool and Love It or Customize It program make personalizing a home straightforward, providing buyers with transparency around features, costs, and design choices. Shane Homes also operates an extensive interior design centre, enabling buyers to work directly with product specialists and streamline selections.

Shane Homes offers a wide variety of home types, including front-drive homes, laned homes, duplexes, townhomes, and condominiums. This range of home types supports buyers at every stage, from entry-level to move-up, across many Calgary communities.

2. Bright Custom Homes 

Bright Custom Homes builds fully custom homes within Calgary’s inner-city neighbourhoods, focusing on craftsmanship, detailed design, and personalized service. The company typically works on infill projects, guiding customers through lot selection, architectural planning, and construction management. Their process prioritizes communication and design solutions suited to the unique characteristics of inner-city sites.

Bright Custom Homes primarily builds custom single-family infill homes, often on narrow or redevelopment lots, offering a wide range of architectural options for inner-city zoning.

3. McKinley Masters

McKinley Masters builds fully custom homes with careful attention to design, materials, and construction quality. They are known for working closely with architects, engineers, and interior designers to deliver homes with a high structural quality. McKinley Masters often manages complex, large-scale projects and supports clients throughout the design development, budgeting, and execution of builds.

McKinley Masters specializes in single-family homes, including estate residences and large custom builds on acreage, lakefront properties, and premium urban lots. Their projects often include intricate architectural features and high-end material specifications.

4. Castellano Custom Homes

Castellano Custom Homes builds fully custom homes that highlight contemporary architecture and clean, refined aesthetics. The company often incorporates open-concept layouts and innovative building materials into its designs. Castellano Custom Homes collaborates closely with homeowners and design professionals, offering flexibility in layout, interior detailing, and exterior style to suit individual preferences.

Castellano Custom Homes specializes in custom single-family homes with an emphasis on modern and contemporary styles. They typically build large-scale, modern infill residences.

5. Trickle Creek

Trickle Creek is a fully custom builder, offering architecturally distinctive homes recognized for their modern design and high-quality finishes. The builder frequently integrates unique architectural elements and energy-efficient systems in each project. Trickle Creek also operates its own design studios and showhomes to help clients visualize selections, ensuring consistency between concept and construction execution.

Trickle Creek builds custom single-family homes ranging from modern infill residences to estate-style suburban houses. Their offerings include contemporary designs, cottage-inspired homes, and signature models that showcase creative layouts.

6. Sterling Homes

Sterling Homes is a production builder that offers a variety of home models with adaptable layouts and finish options to meet different buyer preferences. The builder emphasizes value-focused design, providing customers with clear pricing, a structured selection process, and access to a design centre for interior choices. 

Sterling Homes builds single-family homes across multiple Calgary-area communities, including front-garage models, laned homes, and larger family-oriented layouts.

7. Jayman BUILT

Jayman BUILT is a production builder offering a range of semi-customizable home models, allowing buyers to personalize layouts, features, and finishes within a structured plan. The builder is known for incorporating energy-efficient elements, technology-forward features, and a structured design process that supports buyers from initial selection through completion. 

Jayman BUILT offers a variety of home types, including front-garage homes, laned homes, duplexes, and townhomes.

Pros and Cons of a Custom Home Builder vs a Production Builder in Calgary

Custom Home Builders

Working with a custom builder means navigating a specialized process, each part offering its own benefits and limitations.

Pros

• Provide the ability to create individualized floor plans and structural designs
• Offer broad flexibility in material and finish selections
• Allow customization across most aspects of the home

Cons

• Require higher costs due to customized planning and construction
• Involve longer timelines for design, approvals, and building
• Demand more decisions and involvement from the homeowner

Production Home Builders

Production homebuilders, such as Shane Homes, use a structured approach that comes with its own advantages and limitations.

Pros

• Provide more predictable pricing through standardized processes and tools like Shane Homes Build & Price
• Offer faster construction timelines compared to custom builds
• Reduce the number of decisions through pre-established plans and options
• Allow personalization within defined floor plans and finish selections

Cons

• Reduced customization to the builder’s available options and plans
• Restrict major structural or layout changes
• Narrow finish and feature choices to curated selections

Shane Homes: The Best of Both Worlds

Calgary production builders, such as Shane Homes, offer adaptable floor plans that allow buyers to customize layouts, finishes, and features while maintaining the structure and efficiency of a production-built home. These options appeal to homeowners who want more flexibility without moving into a fully custom home-building process. 

Build a Customizable Calgary Home With Shane Homes

Calgary’s homebuilding market offers options for every type of buyer, from fully custom architectural builders to custom production home builders, such as Shane Homes. Each approach comes with its own advantages in terms of personalization, pricing, and timeline expectations. 

Shane Homes bridges the gap between custom and production. As Calgary’s favourite homebuilder, Shane Homes offers flexible floor plans and personalized design options that give homeowners more control over layout, finishes, and features, without the complexity or expense of a fully custom build. With tools such as Build & Price and the Love It or Customize It program, buyers can explore options, personalize layouts, and better understand pricing before committing to a build.

Buyers who want to explore customizable floor plans, view pricing, or learn more about Shane Homes’ approach can get started by using the online Build & Price tool or by contacting the Shane Homes team to discuss available models and communities.