9:35 AM Sep 8, 2022
Despite burgeoning remote and hybrid work models, the office space market in Metro Vancouver is holding steady, according to a new report by Avison Young, a global commercial real estate services firm. “While the full impact of the hybrid office space is yet to be realized, there are positive signs of recovery, and altered demands from downtown business occupants are expected”, the firm says.— with a scope of the first half of this year — found that the overall office space vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver has held steady, moving from 8.0% at the end of 2021 to 7.8% as of June 31st.
From mid-2021 to mid-2022, Class AAA office space has had the highest vacancy in downtown Vancouver, something that Avison Young attributes to “significant amounts of new supply of class AAA space being delivered.” According to their numbers, a total of 568,278 sq. ft of new supply of AAA space was added by the end of 2021, and that absorption is just starting to catch up. To that tune, class AAA space’s vacancy rate decreased in the first half of this year, from 9.5% in December 2021 to 8.