A homebuilder’s reputation is built one closing at a time, and Avi Amir has had a lot of closings. Since founding Homes by Avi in Calgary in 1978, Amir has grown a single operation into one of Western Canada’s most recognized homebuilding and community development companies, a track record that has earned him a spot in the Southern Alberta Business Hall of Fame’s 2026 laureate class.
Starting From the Ground Up
Amir launched Homes by Avi nearly five decades ago with a simple enough goal, build homes people would actually want to live in. What followed was a slow, deliberate expansion across Alberta and eventually into Texas, with the company branching from single-family construction into land development, multifamily projects, condominiums, and property management. Under his leadership, Homes by Avi has built more than 25,000 homes, a figure that represents a lot of families who first walked through a front door Amir’s company built for them.
Calgary in 1978 looked nothing like the city it is today, and a young builder starting a company from scratch had no guarantee the bet would pay off. Amir stuck with it through the ups and downs that have marked Alberta’s housing market for decades, expanding carefully rather than chasing every boom, and that patience is a large part of why the company is still standing, and still building, nearly fifty years later.
Building Ahead of the Standard
Amir was thinking about energy efficiency before it became a selling point on a listing sheet. Homes by Avi was among the first builders in Alberta to adopt the R-2000 construction standard, a program built around tighter building envelopes and lower energy use at a time when most homebuyers were not yet asking about it. That early commitment set a tone for the company culture Amir built around his leadership, one industry observers have since credited with a run of honours that includes Builder of the Year recognitions, a Canada’s Best Managed Companies designation, and awards tied to customer service and business ethics.
None of that happens without a workforce that buys into the same values, and colleagues describe Amir’s approach as one built on integrity and long-term relationships rather than the next sale. It is an old-fashioned way to run a company, and in a business built on trust between a builder and a family spending the largest sum of money they may ever spend, it has clearly worked. That trust shows up again each time a Homes by Avi sign reappears in a new community, carried there by buyers who already knew the name from somewhere else. Word of mouth is a slow way to grow a homebuilding company, but it tends to be the most durable one, and Amir built his business on exactly that foundation rather than on a single flashy campaign.
Honours for a Long Career
Recognition for Amir has extended well beyond the homebuilding industry itself. In 2022, he received Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for Alberta, an honour tied to his leadership and his impact on the community around him. The following year, Business in Calgary presented him with its Leaders Award, citing his long record of influence in business and community development across the city. Amir remains chairman of Homes by Avi today, a role that has him mentoring the next generation of leadership while staying closely involved in the company’s long-term direction.
Calgary has changed considerably since 1978, its skyline reshaped, its suburbs multiplied many times over, but Amir’s basic approach to the business has not moved much at all. Build something solid, stand behind it, and let the reputation follow. That approach is precisely why the Southern Alberta Business Hall of Fame is honouring him this year, and why so many of the neighbourhoods across this region carry his company’s name on the sign out front.
How many of the streets you drive down in Calgary were shaped, at least in part, by a homebuilder who started with nothing more than a plan and a city willing to grow?
