Heightened demand for land drove commercial real estate sales across the Lower Mainland to the highest level in five years in 2016, according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver data released March 20.
A total of 2,848 sales took place last year, which was 21% higher than the 2,353 transactions in 2015 and almost 30% above the five-year average.
The total dollar value of all sales reached almost $13 billion – up more than 47% compared with $8.8 billion in 2015.
“We saw steady activity across the commercial real estate market in 2016,” REBGV president Dan Morrison said.
“It’s no surprise that land sales had the largest increase last year given the supply shortages we’re experiencing in our residential and commercial markets today.”
Vacant land, office and retail and industrial sales all increased last year compared with 2015. Multi-family unit sales, on the other hand, were down.
For vacant land sales alone, a total of 1,177 transactions were recorded in 2016. This is 41% higher than the 835 sales in 2015. The value of all sales was $7.2 billion – more than 81% higher than the just under $4 billion seen in 2015. This category includes sales of such property types as farmland, garden centres, vineyards and holding properties.
A total of 918 office and retail sales took place last year, which is up almost 13% year-over-year. The dollar value was $3.6 billion – almost $47% higher than 2015.
In 2016, 612 industrial land sales took place, up 10% compared with 2015. The total dollar value of all transaction was just over $1 billion, which was an increase of 3.4%. These category includes warehouse sales.
Sales of multi-family units—which include high-rises, low-rises, nursing homes, condos and townhome properties—dipped 4.1% last year, with a total of 141 transactions. The dollar value fell more than 18% to $1.1 billion.
The REBGV data is compiled based on information from the BC Assessment Authority.
@EmmaHampelBIV
