BC Business
A report released by CBRE Group Inc. shows that Metro Vancouver has the second-lowest industrial availability rate in the country.
The area saw a decrease in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 2.3 percent, slightly ahead of Toronto’s 2.2. CBRE predicts that Metro Vancouver will hit historic lows in 2018, due mostly to rising lease rates and property taxes.
According to the report, average net asking rents for Metro Vancouver in the fourth quarter of 2017 were $10.23 per square foot, up 13.7 percent year-over-year, and the first time rates have broken the $10 mark in the region.
“We are at a critical stage and we need to find industrial areas for these companies. It used to be that when companies couldn’t find space in Vancouver, they moved to the Valley. But now the Valley doesn’t have much inventory left either,” said Chris MacCauley, senior VP of industrial at CBRE in Vancouver, in a release. “We’ve already used up our safety net. So there’s a threat we’re going to see companies relocating out of province or it will limit their growth potential.”
There was some encouraging news for Vancouverites in the report as well, however, as unemployment rates fell in both B.C. (to 4.6 percent) and across Canada (to 5.7 percent). The B.C. mark is the lowest in the country.