Thinking about Moving Your Business to Ottawa? Better Hurry!

The Ottawa real estate market has been one that’s been thriving amongst some slower markets across the country. When compared with cities such as Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary, Ottawa’s housing market has been able to either steadily maintain itself, or even spurt ahead of the other markets. Now the National Office Trends report, a report conducted by commercial real estate brokers, Cushman & Wakefield, has shown that commercial mortgages are going up, as commercial vacancies go down in the nation’s capital.
The report shows that for three months, between the months of June and September 2011, the commercial vacancy rate in Ottawa fell to 8.7% from 9.6%. This figure includes all of Ottawa including the suburbs such as Kanata. The vacancy rate in the downtown core alone fell from 7.7% to 6.9%. Nathan Smith, vice president of Cushman & Wakefield says that as more and more private companies start to scoop up these commercial properties, they’re likely going to see even more builders coming into the city looking to construct larger commercial projects. He says these private companies will only help to boost the city’s economy, which has already been profiting from several city agencies, and a Public Works tender which has been expected to begin in the core for some time.
But while it’s all good news at the moment, Smith also says that he doesn’t expect the vacancy rate to stay this low for long as a major government agency, Economic Development Canada, moves out of its 400,000 square foot building. While the organization is moving into another building in the downtown core, that building is currently occupied, so it won’t affect the current vacancy rate. And leaving such a large building to fill, it’s bound to affect the city’s vacancy rate, at least temporarily. With the positive outlook of Ottawa’s real estate market, any drop is sure to be short-lived.