Montreal's downtown office vacancy is the lowest its been in 5 years

Office vacancies in downtown Montreal are at its lowest levels in the past five years.

According to a new report from the CBRE Group, office vacancy in Quebec’s largest city sits at 8.6% – its lowest level since Q4, 2013.

Over the past eight quarters, Montreal’s downtown core has had 819,500-sq-ft of new product delivered and an additional 998,139-sq-ft is under construction as of Q1 2019, according to the CBRE Group, a commercial real estate service and Fortune 500 company based out of Los Angeles.

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The report finds that Montreal’s emerging tech boom plays a significant role in the decline of office vacancy.

“Canadian office markets continue to gather momentum, in large part as a result of rapidly growing tech and co-working sectors. The remarkable office market momentum continues to build, but tenants have fewer and fewer options if they don’t plan ahead,” says CBRE Canada Vice-Chairman Paul Morassutti. “Meanwhile industrial developers are responding to chronic space shortages with new construction, while tenants are opting to secure space prior to construction completion.”

Canada’s office real estate recorded the most vigorous leasing activity in years, according to the report, brought on primarily by the rapidly expanding tech sector.

The report concluded to show that around the country, the national office property vacancy rate decreased by 40 basis points (bps) quarter-over-quarter, to 11.5% in Q1 2019, the lowest level its been at since Q2 2015.