Before diving into the statistics for the commercial real estate market in the Lower Mainland for 2015, let's back track and take a look at 2014. The Lower Mainland's commercial real estate market topped out at 1,963 sales allowing it to hit a five-year high in terms of the number and value of sales. The commercial real estate sales for 2014 were 4.4% above the region's five-year sales average totalling $6.086 billion in sales.
Ray Harris, REBGV president stated, "[o]ur commercial real estate market was up in 2014 thanks in large part to increased demand for raw land transactions within the development and investor community. An increase in land transactions is often a signal of confidence in the market because it required a multi-year investment."
Following in suit with the trend of growing sales in the area of raw land, an increase in raw land sales contributed to boosting commercial real estate totals for the first quarter of this year. Year over year, the commercial land sales has seen a significant increase in both number of sales and dollar value of sales. With the exception of the actual number of sales transactions in 2013, there have been continual increases from 2011 to 2014. Below you will find comparative data for the commercial land sales for the past four years.
The real estate market for 2015 so far has seen a positive start. In comparing 2014 Q1 and 2015 Q1 sales, the total dollar value of commercial sales in Vancouver has increased by 7.6%, totalling $1.5 billion. As for the number of sales transactions, there has been an increase of 8.6% compared between the first quarters of 2014 and 2015. “It was the most active first quarter we’ve seen in our commercial market over the last five years,” Darcy McLeod, REBGV president said. “This activity reflects the growth we’re seeing in related sectors within our economy such as retail and manufacturing.”
Stay tuned for our next blog post on the comparison of 2014 and 2015 first quarter commercial sales, broken down by category.
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The data relating to real estate on this website comes in part from the MLS® Reciprocity program of either the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) or the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB). Real estate listings held by participating real estate firms are marked with the MLS® logo and detailed information about the listing includes the name of the listing agent. This representation is based in whole or part on data generated by either the REBGV, the FVREB or the CADREB which assumes no responsibility for its accuracy. The materials contained on this page may not be reproduced without the express written consent of either the REBGV, the FVREB or the CADREB.