Film and TV production space in Burnaby beats out Vancouver

Apr 20 2017, 12:01 am

Thought Vancouver was Hollywood North? Think again.

According to a new report, it’s actually Burnaby that has most of the TV and studio space in Metro Vancouver.

The findings come from a report by Colliers International, a Canada-based global real estate organization, on the BC Film Industry and Industrial Real Estate.

The report found Burnaby hosts 48% of studio space in Metro Vancouver, while only 19.5% of studio space is in Vancouver.

According to the research, film and television industry in British Columbia hit $2.1 billion in total production volumefor the year 2015/2016.

The total production volume refers to the sum of production budget with respect to content, location, and other items relating to the production.

Metro Vancouver also emerged as the best place in Canada for ratio of film and TV production volume to industrial inventory (the production area in terms of land and studio.)

According to the findings, the industry in Metro Vancouver is trailing the industry in Ontario which hit a $2.6 billion in film and television production volume.

The report also indicates that tax incentives are needed in BC, as the production houses are highly mobile and often relocate according to the tax incentives.

The industrial space vacancy rate for film production in Metro Vancouver in Q1 2017 was at 2.2% as compared to 1.7% in Q1 2016.

Ten year comparison of total volume of film and television production between Ontario and British Columbia

Tax incentives at stake in election

The report comes in the midst of an election campaign in which both the BC Liberals and BC NDP are proposing various policies for the industry.

The NDP is proposing to extend tax credits to the BC writers, while the Liberals are planning to bring in incentives to attract more studio houses from Asia and Hollywood.

For the year 2015 to 2016, the BC Liberal government gave out tax credits of $493 million to the film and TV industry, as compared to $255 million per year from 2010 to 2014.

As a result, they reduced tax incentives to the industry for movies or TV shows in production on or after October 1, 2016.

The BC government pointed out that demand for the industry is high in the province due to close proximity in timezones to Los Angeles and favourable CAD to USD exchange rate.

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