A particular asset class continues to shore up the market's performance
Commercial market activity in the Metro Vancouver area reached its strongest level since the fourth quarter of 2018, according to Altus Group.
With a sales volume of $2.7 billion for the first quarter of this year, Metro Vancouver continues to be the most-favoured Canadian market among commercial investors, Altus Group said in its just-released Investment Trends Survey.
The market’s Q1 2021 commercial sales were significantly boosted by multi-family segment activity, as well as the sale of Mountain Equipment Co-op’s former headquarters, a transaction valued at $103 million.
The sale of the 120,000-square-foot building was the largest office transaction in Vancouver for that quarter, and represented as much as 43% of the city’s Q1 office segment volume.
Read more: Avison Young on the Vancouver industrial market’s situation
Rental apartment assets had a strong showing, with a new record high of $738 million (up by 73% annually) invested in these properties during Q1 2021. Around 40% of this volume was due to a 15-building, 614-unit acquisition by an InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust and Crestpoint Investments joint venture, valued at $292.5 million.
This was “the highest performing quarter of multi-family investment in the Vancouver market area since Altus Group started tracking transaction data in 1999,” the firm said in its report.
The industrial segment also saw 12% year over year gain, with a total transaction value of $649 million during the first quarter.
