Demand for commercial assets, especially offices, will not slow down any time soon
Attesting to its status as a leading technology and entrepreneurial hub, Toronto saw the largest proportionate growth in technology jobs of any North American city over the past half-decade, according to CBRE’s “Scoring Tech Talent in North America 2019” report.
Over the past five years, the city saw its number of tech industry employees grow by a massive 54% to a total of 228,500 professionals.
This far outpaced the growth observed in other North American heavyweight tech talent markets like San Francisco (33.4%, total of 353,760); New York (20.5%, total of 264,374); and Washington, D.C. (2.2% total of 253,660).
Vancouver was also no slouch in its expansion, posting 42.6% growth over five years, for a total of 74,700 professionals.
With more and more global tech companies establishing roots in major Canadian markets, this year will most likely be characterized by robust, sustained performance in the nation’s commercial sector – especially the office asset class.
“Commercial real estate remained one of the most attractive and stable long-term investments in 2019 and will continue to attract interest from investors in 2020,” Morguard director of research Keith Reading told Mortgage Broker News last month.
“Industrial and multiunit rental apartments are probably the two most attractive asset classes. Office is just as strong,” Reading explained.
“The big thing for investors is that they look at commercial real estate as a defensive asset. It’s a solid long-term investment as opposed to equities markets, where you get more fluctuation and more volatility. So I think that in the economic environment that we’re in, real estate definitely seen as an asset that will perform over the long term.”
