It's no surprise that emerging tech hotspots help bolster housing markets. Brokers in these cities may soon experience a business boom, according to one report about the country's hottest tech spots
It's no surprise that emerging tech hotspots help bolster housing markets. Brokers in these cities may soon experience a business boom, according to one report about the country's hottest tech spots.
CBRE’s 2016 Scoring Canadian Tech Talent report, identified that top 10 Canadian markets expected to see tech industry growth in the near future.
Toronto leads the way, followed by Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Halifax, Edmonton, Waterloo, Winnipeg, and London.
“The number of tech jobs has soared in Canada in the past five years, with nine out the 10 top Canadian markets recording growth. Of those nine, eight recorded double digit growth rates,”
Raymond Wong, Head of Research at CBRE Canada, said. “The tech sector is becoming ever more critical by the day to the Canadian office market, with technology firms accounting for 16.1% of all major office lease deals in Canada last year.
“This percentage increases markedly in our larger urban areas, for example tech accounted for 43% of all leases in Ottawa last year, and it’s a trend we only see growing in the years to come.”
Overall, the country has added 140,000 new tech jobs.
And when the tech industry booms, housing follows. Just look at Waterloo, which has seen impressive market growth as tech companies have set up shop.
Sales dollar volume was up 29% year-over-year in the Kitchener-Waterloo area in September, and prices were up 10.1%.
The report based its scorecard on 13 metrics, including tech talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed degrees, industry outlook, and market outlook for office and apartment rent.
“Despite the higher cost of real estate in Toronto and Vancouver, this is dwarfed by the cost of wages. So lower salaries than other Canadian cities still make these large tech centres an affordable option for many companies,” Wong said. “When you add in that in these two cities over a third of the labour pool is university educated, and they already provide established tech networks and communities, it’s little wonder that many international firms are looking to set up shop there.
Compared to the top 50 most expensive North American tech markets, Toronto and Vancouver are 49th and 50th in the rankings, assisted by a low Canadian dollar. This makes these two cities are relative bargain for US tech firms looking to expand further North.”
