Sales of residential land and apartment buildings dominated Metro Vancouver’s record-setting commercial real estate market in 2016’s first quarter, according to a new survey.
Four of the five top transactions in the $2.7 billion buying binge during the first three months of this year involved residential land. In all, sales of residential land accounted for more than $1.3 billion and represented more than half of the total sales volume. Altus Group suggests some of the land is being bought on speculation of higher-density zoning.
“The appetite for development land appears insatiable,” said Paul Richter, director, commercial research, at Altus Group.
Altus reports that overall dollar volume for commercial property in the first quarter increased 7% and, for the second quarter in a row, set a record. Residential land sales advanced 60% from the previous quarter.
Each of the top residential land sales in the first quarter is a developer acquisition and located in the city of Vancouver.
They include the Onni Group’s $302 million purchase of the 24-acre Pearson Dogwood lands; a 1.3-acre site on West 8th Avenue that was bought by Delta Group for $70 million; and approximately one-third of an acre in Vancouver’s West End, for which an unknown investor paid $59 million.
Further evidence of the dominant influence of residential in the commercial sector is that sales of (mostly older) rental apartment buildings, at $243 million, were worth more in the first quarter than sales of all Metro Vancouver office buildings and retail property combined. •
