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, a financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate.
“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 metres 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 metres of rapid-transit stations in Metro Vancouver, finds that there is an average rental premium of 22.8 per cent for transit-oriented office space in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey. Total vacancy levels within the overall rapid transit index (RTI) are at 6.5 per cent, down from 8.9 per cent when the inaugural report was published in 2011.
“The trend for choosing proximity to transit over building quality is not abating,” said Norm Taylor, senior vice-president of James Lang Lasalle, adding, “Tenants are choosing location, location, location.”
Buildings near Canada Line stations had the lowest vacancy rate at 3.2 per cent, followed by the Skytrain Expo Line at 5.8 per cent and then the Skytrain Millennium Line at 10.7 per cent. The biggest difference was in New Westminster, where office buildings close to Skytrain stations had a 4.2 per cent vacancy, while those further away had a vacancy of 23.4 per cent.
This article from the August 2012 Western Investor.
