Prospects for Canadian commercial real estate

The CEO of an urban environment management firm says that Canada offers a safe haven that the U.S. commercial markets can’t match

With interest shifting further northward in the wake of the U.S. presidential elections, the Canadian commercial real estate sector can expect sustained activity throughout 2017, according to the head of an urban environment management firm.
 
Last week, Allied Properties REIT chief executive officer Michael Emory stated that demand for commercial real estate in the country’s leading markets—and in Toronto, in particular—won’t slow down in the near future, especially considering Donald Trump’s surprise win.
 
“The outlook in the next 24 months for Toronto office demand in my opinion is very, very good. There’s even a shortage [of leasable office space] in certain areas of the city,” Emory said in an interview with BuzzBuzzNews.
 
“Certainly post-Brexit, there was a discernable [sic] flow of funds into Canada because of its, perhaps, safe-haven status, and it’s not unreasonable to think that post-the current election in the United States we may see a similar flow for the same reasons,” Emory added. “Only time will tell because nobody really is confident in anticipating what’s going to happen in the United States of America in the next 24 to 48 months.”
 
Cited by various observers as one of the most attractive cities for office property buyers in North America, the Toronto commercial segment’s surging growth is a phenomenon two decades in the making, the CEO explained.
 
“Since the mid-1990s, people have been choosing to live, work and play, for the most part, in the inner cities as opposed to the broader suburban areas,” he said.
 
This trend is projected to fuel the rise of more flexible options for tenants, a shift that Allied is planning to capitalize into with its versatile retail offerings at The Well, a mixed-use development in Toronto.
 
“The old suburban notion where you needed a certain floor-plate size and massive amounts of parking simply is not achievable in the inner city,” Emory said.

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