Canada’s Office Vacancies Hit a Record as Space Floods Market
Remote work and fears of a slowing economy are pushing companies to scale back or relocate to newer, amenity-packed buildings.
The downtown Toronto skyline.
Photographer: Steve Russell/Toronto StarThis article is for subscribers only.
The vacancy rate at Canadian office buildings reached a record high at the end of last year as companies cut back on space while new supply continued to hit the market.
Nationwide, 17.1% of offices were empty as 2.1 million square feet (195,000 square meters) of space failed to find a tenant, according to a fourth-quarter report by CBRE Group Inc. Much of that vacant real estate was in Toronto, where owners of old buildings failed to replace companies relocating to new ones, and technology firms scaled back growth plans amid a deepening retrenchment in that industry, the brokerage said.