Surprising post-pandemic shift hits downtown Vancouver as office vacancies rise to 12.3%

A day after a report that two of Canada’s largest pension funds were putting up for sale two downtown Vancouver office towers — including one occupied solely by Amazon.com Inc. — a commercial real estate firm said the vacancy rate for downtown Vancouver office space had risen to 12.3 per cent in the last quarter.

On Wednesday Avison Young said three-quarters of the total increase in downtown Vancouver vacant office space in the last quarter came from tenants choosing not to renew primary leases rather than from an increase in the subleasing market.

Most observers in Vancouver were sanguine with their analysis of the situation.

Relative to other downtown office markets, such as in Calgary, Toronto and the U.S., Vancouver is more liquid for sellers, said Ross Moore, a managing broker at real estate company Cresa.

This could explain the choice of the pension funds to sell the Vancouver properties, he said.