The overall Metro Vancouver office vacancy rate is among the lowest in North America and the second lowest in Western Canada, behind smaller Regina and tied with Winnipeg.
And an international survey by Avison Young notes the Metro office market is "showing signs of improvement."
Cushman & Wakefield reports that regional office vacancies rose to 8.4 per cent in the second quarter from 7.9 per cent three months earlier, while CB Richard Ellis pegs the current vacancy rate at 10.1 per cent.
Avison Young estimates Metro Vancouver downtown office vacancies at 5.1 per cent, with suburban vacancies at 11.1 per cent.
Some suburban markets are seeing higher demand, however.
Darrell Hurst, a principal in Avison Young's Vancouver office, points to Surrey.
"It's one of the tightest markets in all of Metro Vancouver," he said, noting that the three best office buildings in the marketplace - the Central City tower, Station Tower and Guildford Corporate Centre - are fully leased. "If there was availability in any of those three buildings, virtually of any size, I think it would be leased very quickly."
Another suburban market brighter than the regional picture is North Vancouver, where two recent transactions and projects proposed by GWL Realty Advisors Inc. and Citimark Development Corp. on Dollarton Highway highlight the opportunities.
In all, Metro developers are expected to add 600,000 square feet of new office space this year, but no new downtown office towers are expected until at least 2013, Avison Young forecasts.
From Western Investor, September, 2010
