Sales of commercial properties such as apartments in the Lower Mainland have been booming in the quarter starting July and ending September.
According to industry reports, commercial real estate sector has seen a five-year sales high of 550 transactions made in the said quarter with an increase of 16.8 percent compared to the 471 sales record in the third quarter of 2014.
The increase was due to increased demand for land and office and retail properties, according to data from Commercial Edge, a commercial real estate system operated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).
“We’ve seen steady demand in our commercial real estate market throughout 2015. Commercial activity in the Lower Mainland is benefiting from the strength of our provincial economy, which has outperformed the rest of the country for much of the year,” Darcy McLeod, REBGV president said.
According to the report, the largest category of the sales was commercial land sales. There were 192 sales, which increased by 28.9 percent compared to 149 sales in third quarter of 2014.
As for the office and retail sales, there were 215 sales made in the Lower Mainland, which constituted a 16.8 percent increase from the previous sales in 2014. While for the industrial land sales, a number of 112 transactions were made this year, similar to the sales of Q3 in 2014.
Lastly, sales for the multi-family category rose by 19.2 percent to 31 from the 26 sales made in 2014. Interestingly, the dollar value of these sales was $283 million. A whooping 123 percent increase was seen this year compared to the $127 million sales in 2014.
Apparently, apartments are in short supply in the Lower Mainland which resulted to the hikes in prices.
The total dollar value of the sales made in third quarter of 2015 was $1.9 billion. That is 33.6 percent rise from that of 2014.
What do you think of the rising real estate market in the Lower Mainland?
