Canada’s residential property market may be red hot, but the rest of the country’s real estate complex is going through a rough patch as the prolonged effect of the coronavirus leaves many workers avoiding the office and hunkering down in their basements, kitchen tables and living rooms.
“We expect retail occupancy will continue to slip amid space rationalization and another round of anticipated tenant failures, particularly in 1H/21,” RBC said in a report, noting that it prefers commercial properties that have grocers as anchors. “We forecast 2021 national average net rent growth of -5 per cent, using our base-case outlook for office demand and supply,” RBC analysts Pamir Bir, Niki Shi and Matt logan wrote in a report. “Regionally, we expect 2021 rents to exhibit greater resiliency in Central Canada vs. Western Canada .”