With British Columbia's resource sector in decline and capital spending related to the 2010 Olympics dwindling, Vancouver's office vacancy began to rise in the first quarter, a major commercial realtor reported Thursday.
CB Richard Ellis Canada, in its latest office report, calculated that Metro Vancouver’s office vacancy rose to 7.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 from six per cent at the same point in 2008.
Downtown Vancouver's notoriously tight vacancy rate, which approached rates of 2.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2008, has crept up to 4.2 per cent.
However, CB Richard Ellis senior analyst Nicholas Westlake, in an interview, said the amount of additional office space downtown tenants hold, but are willing to turn over into subleases, is the more important statistic.
