Office deals in British Columbia more than tripled year over year in 2024, reaching $1.31bn, according to Green Street’s Sales Comps Database.
The vast majority of transactions were in Metro Vancouver. While sales in the sector remain sluggish elsewhere in Canada, the Vancouver region’s strong showing is resetting values nationwide, Scott Figler, director of research for Canada at JLL, said.
“It’s an attractive market from an ownership perspective,” Figler said. “Most of the benchmark sales in Canada have happened in Vancouver.”
Still, he said, it has been a struggle to find data points for trophy assets in Canada over the last year.
With foreign capital still on the sidelines since the pandemic, the market hasn’t been as busy as previous years, when total sales have been near or exceeded $2bn, Figler said. Total sales hit $2.3bn in 2019.
The largest office deal in Vancouver last year was Allied Properties REIT’s purchase of a 90% stake in 400 West Georgia Street for $357.5m from Westbank.
A close second was the $300m acquisition by Deka Immobilien of 401 West Georgia Street and 402 Dunsmuir Street from Oxford Properties and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. CBRE brokered the deal.
Westbank also sold 114 East Fourth Avenue for $115m to Spear Street Capital.
While the largest of the big deals were in Vancouver proper, many on the list were across Boundary Road in the suburb of Burnaby.
In Burnaby, the sale of 3777 and 3791 Kingsway for $82.5m was the first deal outside of the top three and one of five in the city.
The spring sale of Eastlake Campus by Adera Group was the next-biggest sale in Burnaby, ringing in at $69m.
The sales show the health of Vancouver’s market is better than others in Canada.
Research manager Svetlana Lebedeva of Cushman & Wakefield in Vancouver said leasing activity in the market has been solid and 2025 looks positive.
“We still have pockets of vacant and available space in new builds,” Lebedeva said. “In addition to that we have new-lease and sublease activity starting in 2020. These two are the main drivers of vacancy.”
Metro Vancouver’s overall vacancy rate is 11.4%, making it one of the strongest office markets in North America.
Other significant sales in the market include Metrotown Place in Burnaby, purchased by the city for $65m.
Outside of Metro Vancouver, the $40.5m sale of 1175 Douglas Street in Victoria was the eighth largest. Manulife Global sold the property to an undisclosed buyer.
