The biggest real estate deals in the province last year lost over half their 2018 average value, according to data collected for Business in Vancouver’s Biggest Real Estate Deals of 2019 B.C. list.
The average real estate deal value on the list fell 54.6% last year to $29.7 million, which is below 2014 levels. In 2018, the average real estate deal value of on the list hit a record high of $65.4 million.
The median deal value for the list also plummeted by 35% to $19.6 million in 2019, down from $30.4 million in 2018. The median deal value sank to below 2015 levels. This suggests that larger deals higher on the list fell further in value than smaller deals lower on the list.
The decline was particularly evident for the deals ranked highest on the list. In 2014, the Tsawwassen Mills real estate deal topped the list and was valued at $750 million. Since then no deals have reached this value, but there has been closer competition recently. In 2018 the largest deal for a group of casinos, including the Grand Villa Casino Hotel & Conference Centre in Burnaby, was valued at $575 million, a 19.8% increase over the top deal value in 2017 of $480 million.
In 2019 the largest deal on the list, Crespoint Real Estate Investment Ltd.’s acquisition of property at 1075 West Georgia Street in Vancouver from bcIMC Realty Corp., declined 52.4% to $274 million compared with 2018’s No. 1 deal.
Despite falling in value over the past couple years, the smallest real estate deal on the list has grown significantly over the past seven years, more than doubling in size from 2013 to $16 million in 2018. In 2019, the 100th largest deal on the list was valued at $8.9 million compared with $7.1 million in 2014, an increase of 25.35% over the five-year period, but a decline of 44.4% from the previous year.
