They’re not even the most expensive in Canada
Marke Andrews
Sun
The cost of renting office space in downtown Vancouver climbed slightly during the past six months, and rose at a greater rate outside the downtown core. But the city still looks like a deal when compared with London, Moscow or Mumbai.
In a new report from CB Richard Ellis, the world’s largest real estate services company, Vancouver was ranked the 52nd-most expensive city in the world to rent office space, and the third most expensive Canadian city, at $49.98 per square foot per year. This is up slightly from May, the last time the survey was done, when Vancouver ranked 57th at $49.46 per square foot.
The cost of doing business in Vancouver‘s suburbs, which includes areas within the city but outside the downtown core, rose at a higher rate. Vancouver suburbs ranked 99th on the list with a rental cost of $33.46 per square foot, up significantly from the May ranking of 119th and $28.86.
(The numbers represent gross rents, and include net rents, taxes and operating costs.)
Chris Clibbon, senior research analyst at CB Richard Ellis’s Vancouver office, said developments in the Broadway corridor and new office buildings opening in Vancouver‘s suburbs are the reasons for the spike.
“Rents on the Broadway corridor have increased quite a bit because the vacancy rate is even lower than downtown,” said Clibbon, citing a 2.6-per-cent vacancy rate in the Broadway corridor, compared with Vancouver’s record-low three-per-cent vacancy rate in the downtown core. “And in terms of new supply, there’s nothing that will change the vacancy rate [in the Broadway corridor].”
Clibbon said that new office developments in Vancouver‘s outlying areas have raised the suburban costs, because new buildings generally have higher rents than older ones.
The most expensive place in the world to rent office space is the West End of London, England, at $326.67 psf, followed by Mumbai, India ($188.22), the City of London ($179.57) and Moscow ($179.55).
The most expensive Canadian city remains Calgary, ranked 34th in the world at $64 — virtually unchanged from May’s 33rd ranking at $64.12 — followed by Toronto, 35th at $63.35.
Other Canadian cities on the list of 170 are Edmonton (57th, $46), Ottawa (64th, $44.25), Calgary‘s suburbs (89th, $37.11), Montreal (94th, $35.84), Halifax (111th, $30.23), Toronto‘s suburbs (116th, $29.50), Montreal‘s suburbs (130th, $25.27), London, Ont. (135th, $24.53) and Waterloo (138th, $24.32).
© The Vancouver Sun 2007