BC Business
Commercial real estate sales in Greater Vancouver reached $5 billion last year.
For the first time since 2009, commercial real estate transactions in Greater Vancouver surpassed the $5 billion mark in 2012, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
The REBGV collects data through its real estate operating system, Commercial Edge, which includes all commercial real estate transactions in the Lower Mainland (except for those in Pitt Meadows and Chilliwack) registered with the Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. since 2009.
Despite the increased total evaluation of 2012 sales, the number of commercial real estate sales recorded by the LTSA (1,875) is slightly below the 2011 number (1,926). It does represents an increase of 46 per cent from the real estate industry’s most recent record low in 2009, a year in which only 1,287 commercial real estate sales were registered.
Among reported categories, multi-family building sales went through a particularly interesting change in 2012: the gross number of buildings sold was down 12 per cent since 2011 (from 116 to 102); however, the total dollar value of these sales increased by 10 per cent (from $494 million to $544 million).
“The strength of last year’s commercial real estate market can be attributed in part to an upswing in raw land sales in the region,” Eugen Klein, REBGV president said in a press release.