Canadian Oil Boom Reverberates as Office Tower Values Climb

Bank of Nova Scotia may have found the perfect time to sell Scotia Plaza, a Toronto office complex that’s expected to fetch as much as C$1.5 billion ($1.5 billion), a record for Canada.

Office vacancies are falling in Toronto and the rest of Canada amid economic growth led by the oil and natural-gas industries. Investor interest in commercial property is rising after the total return on real estate climbed almost 16 percent last year, the most since 2006 and outpacing gains in the U.S., according to the REALpac/IPD Canada Annual Property Index.