Commercial Real Estate in Canada Booming as IT Sector Expands

The information technology industry in Canada has been fueling tremendous growth for the country’s commercial real estate sector.
According to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a US-based professional services and investment management firm, a larger number of people are working in Canada’s technology sector today than ever before.
The technology sector has outpaced the growth seen in finance and insurance, as well as real estate and leasing, increasing at an impressive rate of 20.3% since 2005. The IT sector, in particular, has employed 503,000 people nationwide.
“The tech sector has seen robust employment growth, fueling their need for real estate,” says the report, adding that technology companies generated 15.8% of total leasing activities for spaces of 20,000 square feet or greater in the first half of the year.
Nowhere is this more widely visible than in Toronto, where office space leased by the tech sector is exceeded only by government and financial services.
“It has been 15 years since we have seen this much activity within the technology industry,” says Brett Miller, President of JLL Canada. “Our dependence on technology has accelerated its growth at an unprecedented pace, and most industries are profiting.”
If the trend continues, says the report, the country will see US$20 billion in real estate investment.
Across the country, technology investments saw an increase of 58.5% in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year. Considering the report, a large number of Americam firms are looking to take advantage of the country’s talent pool, the value of the Canadian dollar, and the country’s proximity to U.S. west coast.
Property developers will likely build more commercial space in the days to come to cash in on the demand, says the investment management firm.
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