Commercial real estate pros in Vancouver and Calgary like to boast that their markets are on a giant roll, but, when compared to Canada's biggest city, both cities look like dwarfs.
RealNet (www.realnet.ca) confirms that 2012 was a banner year in all three centres.
The overall research for 2012 (counting only sales worth more than $1 million) shows that commercial real estate sales in Calgary soared 80 per from a year earlier and hit the second highest level in Vancouver - but set an all-time record in Toronto.
In Calgary, total commercial real estate sales last year reached $4.84 billion. Vancouver tallied a slightly higher $4.85 billion (down from the 2007 peak of $5.85 billion). And Toronto showed why it is the Goliath of Canadian real estate with $13 billion in commercial real estate deals last year.
Incidentally, it was residential land that dominated the Vancouver commercial scene, accounting for 33 per cent of all sales, while the apartment market had the biggest dollar gain, shooting up 27 per cent from a year earlier to $123.9 million.
In Calgary, raw land - for both multi-family residential and commercial - made up nearly a third - $1.35 billion - of all sales, while the apartment sector saw values soar 254 per cent to $468.4 million, the third best year on record. Toronto residential land sales reached $744 million - in the fourth quarter of 2012 alone.
For a detailed look at the commercial real estate action in Canada's most dynamic trio of cities, see the May issue of Western Investor
