There is a hefty premium for Metro Vancouver office rents close to Canada Line or Skytrain stations: nearly 23 per cent, according to a study by Jones Lang Lasalle.
“Class B and C office buildings that are conveniently located within 500 metres of rapid transit hubs are outperforming class A buildings located [further away]. Overall Metro Vancouver vacancy rates are almost twice as high at buildings further than 500 meters away from a rapid transit station, compared to those located closer,” says the company’s semi-annual Vancouver Rapid Transit Office Index survey.
The index, which analyses office properties outside the downtown core and within 500 meters of rapid transit stations in Metro Vancouver, finds that there is an average rental premium of 22.8 percent for transit-oriented office space in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey. Total vacancy levels within the overall Rapid Transit Index are at 6.5 percent, down from 8.9 percent when the inaugural report was published in Q4 2011.
“The trend for choosing proximity to transit over building quality is not abating,” said Norm Taylor, senior vice president of Janes Lang Lasalle, adding, “tenants are choosing location, location, location.”
Buildings near Canada Line stations had the lowest vacancy rate at 3.2 percent, followed by the Skytrain Expo Line at 5.8 percent and then the Skytrain Millennium Line at 10.7 percent.
Jones Lang Lasalle is a financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate.
