Ian Huston

The final quarter of 2022 demonstrated a sign of what may be to come in the near-term for the Suburban office market. Despite some tangible leasing activity towards the end of the year as a few companies attempted to finalize deals on new office space before heading into 2023, Q4 2022 represented the most significant quarterly contraction in occupied space in the Suburban office market since 2015. - Activity in the Beltline was slow throughout most of 2022 and it is becoming one of the most difficult submarkets in Calgary for landlords to transact in, as it struggles with identity of where it fits within Calgary’s office market ecosystem. - With the exception of a few specific tenants, a reduction in office footprint remains the trend among occupiers transacting on new space across almost all major industries in the suburbs. Medical users, however, are driving a notable portion of the leasing activity in the suburban market towards the end of 2022 and into 2023.

The final quarter of 2022 continued to demonstrate strong leasing activity in Calgary’s downtown office market which resulted in another quarter of significant positive absorption.

The industrial real estate market in the Greater Calgary Area (GCA) experienced a slight increase in vacancy in Q4 2022, rising 13 basis points to 2.34% overall, but still had the strongest year of all the markets in Canada in terms of absorption at 11.7 million square feet. Pre-leasing activity remains strong, and even with approximately 5.0 million square feet of inventory still under construction, Colliers expects vacancy to decrease over the course of 2023. Although investment sale activity in the GCA slowed in 2022, it is expected that the current offerings and new listings anticipated in the new year will bring much needed price discovery.