Is TO Building Too Much Office Space?
Avison Young research VP Bill Argeropoulos (here with associate Liz Nucci) acknowledges the chatter around whether office space is being built too quickly in Toronto, particularly downtown. Six office buildings (1.2M SF) were completed in Q3, bringing the YTD tally to 10 buildings (1.4M SF). There's another 6.4M SF under construction, nearly a million square feet of it to be delivered by year's end, including GWL Realty Advisors’ Bremner Tower (seen below at centre).
But Bill cautions against comparing this market to the cycles of the 1980s and early 1990s, which were “marred by recessions” and involved less-sophisticated developers. Today, he says, the Toronto market is controlled by a handful of players, but they represent large pools of capital, like pension funds and REITs, which are “more disciplined, risk-averse, and accountable.”
