Vacancy Rate in Calgary Canada Drops to 1.9%

Calgary Herald - February 20, 2006

The hunt for downtown office space is so intense these days that buildings still under construction and not available for occupancy for more than a year have been pre-leased. It's a sign of the times in Calgary as the downtown office vacancy rate has hit a historic low. According to a February office space report by Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd., the overall vacancy rate is at 1.9 per cent.

'The properties that are being delivered in 2007 consisting of four major new office developments in downtown Calgary are approximately 70 per cent pre-leased at this point in time,' said Mark St. Pierre, senior vice-president and principal of Barclay Street Real Estate. 'We anticipate that those buildings will be 90 to 100 per cent pre-leased before the end of this calendar year with still six months following for delivery. The average lease rate for AA office space is currently about $35 a square foot.

Downtown Calgary has about 33 million square feet of office space. In the top quality AA class, the actual vacancy rate is 0.9 per cent, according to Barclay Street Real Estate, with only just over 50,000 square feet of vacant area in an overall inventory of just over five million square feet. "With under two per cent vacancy in the downtown core, Calgary's vacancy is second in the world only to Tokyo at 1.2 per cent," states the report. Sphere: Related Content