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Pacific Canada  + Canada  + Office  | 
Vancouver office vacancy maintained an upward trend as it rose to 8.8% in the first quarter of 2024, says a Colliers report.

Vancouver Office Vacancy Rises to 8.8%

Vancouver office vacancy maintained an upward trend as it rose to 8.8% in the first quarter of 2024, says a Colliers report.

The increase marked a 230-basis-point rise from the first quarter of 2023.

“As a result of rising vacancy and reduced demand for office space, many proposed developments have been placed on hold for re-evaluation or chosen to wait to break ground until sufficiently prelease, rather than proceed on a speculative basis,” said Colliers.

Tenants continued to favour sublease space due to historically high fit-out costs and ongoing uncertainty surrounding utilization rates. As result, headlease space remained on the market as options.

A City of Vancouver industrial zoning bylaw change has allowed for more diverse office uses in mixed-use industrial and office products, giving tenants more office location options.

While potential office conversions are generating buzz, they represent a “very small” number of projects in Canada. And, the Metro Vancouver market has limited opportunities or need for conversions due to the size of the office market.

And despite the increase, Vancouver’s office vacancy rate is the lowest in Canada.

A Colliers team led by Associate Research Director Susan Thompson authored the report.

Photo: Colliers

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Susan ThompsonColliers

About Monte Stewart

Monte Stewart serves as Content Director - Canada for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monte provides daily news coverage of major Canadian commercial real estate markets, including Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. He has written about the real estate sector for various media outlets and Avison Young since the early 2000s. In addition, he has covered sports, general news and business for several leading wire services and publications, including The Canadian Press, The Associated Press, The Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail, Research Money, The Daily Oil Bulletin, Natural Gas World and The Toronto Star. Monte is active in his community as a youth basketball coach and raises funds for such charitable causes as Movember.

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