The federal government's stabilizing influence on Ottawa's commercial real estate market couldn't fully immunize the market from a sharp decline in investment seen nationwide in the first half of 2008, according to a recent study by CB Richard Ellis.
Investment levels across all sectors in Ottawa plunged to $322 million from $618 million a year earlier, with the multi-residential category seeing the largest drop. The office sector showed the only increase, climbing to $134 million from $89 million in the first half of 2007.
The National Capital Region experienced the second-steepest decline among the nine Canadian markets surveyed, all of which experienced double-digit percentage drops in investment, except Vancouver.
