Calgary’s downtown office vacancy rate has declined for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commercial real estate firm Avison Young says the city’s downtown office vacancy rate ticked down in the fourth quarter of 2021, to 29.7 per cent from 29.9 per cent.
Calgary’s downtown real estate market has been at record high levels since the fourth quarter of 2019.
Nearly 1.3 million square metres of office space in the city’s core sits empty.
But Avison Young says the tide is turning. It says leasing activity is picking up as public-health restrictions ease and companies figure out their return to office strategies.
Avison Young says there is still a long road to recovery for Calgary’s office market but it expects the overall trend in the next 12 to 24 months to be positive.
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