Why Vancouver Downtown Condo Supply Will Diminish and Office Space will Increase

June 20th, 2008 Categories: Downtown, Vancouver Real Estate

Vancouver City Hall is considering a ban on residential development in favour of commercial and higher density for office towers

This plan will radically reshape the Downtown business district core and keep condos at bay, so says a recent article by Frances Bula in the Vancouver Sun. The City is proposing a 20-40% higher density for office towers and Developers will be encouraged to build as high as possible without blocking designated views. There is a problem for capacity for job space in the City.

The City is also proposing that all conversions from office to condos in buildings over 50,000 square feet will be discouraged throught the new central business district, which will stretch from Bute to Beatty and Robson to Cordova.

Similarly, conversion buildings over 30,000 square feet in Yaletown, Chinatown and Gastown will be discouraged. The change is welcomed by the business community which has been raising the alarm about the way office development has been losing out to residential and the effect that will have on the business market downtown in the future. Only sites that have an element of Heritage or residential-hotel preservation will be allowed to include residential.

City planners have estimated that the Downtown needs about 6 million square fee more of office space to accommodate an increase from the 120,000 jobs that now exist downtown Vancouver. The City is also proposing a Metro Core that extends more of 16th avenue from Clark to Arbutus, to create more job space.

The office vacancy rate Downtown Vancouver has dropped to a record low.

As we have mentioned many times before, the Downtown is getting built out and there are only a few small sites left. It is my opinion that this will add pressure to the prices. More office space will result in more Downtown jobs and with the inevitable rising cost of gas, more people will want to walk, bike or bus to work.

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