Feb. 22, 2021
Peter Garrigan, senior managing director, industrial practice group, Colliers International in Toronto. (Courtesy Colliers)
When we compare Canada’s industrial property market to the other commercial asset classes through 2020, it’s clear industrial land and buildings maintained a steadiness not seen in other sectors during this pandemic.
Industrial land is still trading at record prices, developers continue to break new ground, new leases are being signed and renewals are being completed.
The overall national industrial average vacancy rate at the end of 2020 was a low 2.2 per cent across the country, according to Colliers’ latest national market snapshot report.
Despite a slight pause at the beginning of the second quarter of 2020 as the pandemic befell us all, things got back up and running quickly in the industrial market. But that show of strength also contributes to the pain; vacancy rates remain critically low in most of our big cities, while lease rates, land prices and construction costs climb.