British Columbia’s largest commercial real estate brokerages have managed to grow through the pandemic, despite a pre-pandemic decline in the median number of commercial agents, according to data collected on Business in Vancouver’s list of B.C.’s biggest commercial real estate brokerages (https://biv.com/lists).
In 2019, the median number of commercial real estate brokers employed at the largest firms in the province fell 22.7%, to 17 from 22, in 2018. Since then, the median number of agents has grown 50% to 25.5 in 2021. The average number of agents dipped slightly in 2019 then increased.
Over the past year, the median number of commercial real estate agents grew 13.3%, to 25.5 in 2021 from 22.5 in 2020, outperforming the average of 1.7% growth over the same period. The past five years mirrored this pattern: the average number of brokers rose 14.92% to 41.2 in 2021 from 35.9 in 2018, during which time the median number of brokers grew nearly 60%. This suggests that smaller firms lower on the list grew more than larger firms higher on the list.
Contrary to the direction of B.C.’s median and average number of commercial brokers, the number of real estate agents at the province’s No. 1 firm, Colliers (TSX:CIGI), peaked in 2019 at 168 and fell 6.5%, to 157, in 2021. •
