Above: Toronto skyline at night.
Colliers International stats
Colliers International’s Semi-Annual Canadian Office & Industrial Markets Report & Forecast indicates Toronto’s office space market vacancy rates are lowering downtown, climbing down from 2010 to a current 6.4%, performing nearly 40% better than 2009’s market low.
“Toronto’s skyline has been changing dramatically. The city waited nearly fourteen years for a new tower and now we have three new office buildings already occupied while others will be coming up on the horizon,” says John Arnoldi, Managing Director with Colliers International in Toronto. “This, more than anything, signals the resiliency of the market which is expected to provide development opportunities for landlords over the coming years.”
Arnoldi notes that three new office buildings – the Telus tower, RBC tower, and the Bay And Adelaide centre – that have cropped up in the city are full. The downtown and mid-town areas vacancy rates are lower as well, currently at 5.7% and 4.8%.
Concerns of the global meltdown assuaged
“There was a concern that with the global meltdown, many downtown financial services would move back their offices into the suburbs,” Mr. Arnoldi said. “But if anything, we’re seeing them re-entrenching in the downtown core.”
The report indicates a similar recovery in Montreal with overall Canadian commercial real estate numbers improving despite rumors last year of an impending recession.
Chris Fyvie
April 15, 2011 at 8:55 am
As an agent at Colliers I'm biased on our data. But it is a fact I'm running into competing offers on most space downtown and midtown that shows well. By that, I mean space that doesn't need any construction and could be made ready to occupy within 2 months of engaging in an offer / lease negotiations. It's REALLY tight out there.
Lani Rosales
April 15, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Hey Chris, we LOVE to hear good news like this! Can't wait for American cities to feel a reinvigorated CRE market too! 🙂
MH for Movoto
April 18, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Um, this might be a really retarded question but which particular "global meltdown" are they referring to? Financial crisis/radiation/icecaps melting/real estate crash?
Whatever it means, hey, this is absolutely fabulous news. Let's hope it happens here too.