AI is expected to be a major growth driver for Vancouver’s tech industry and office space demand over the next decade, according to a new report.

The commercial real estate market could be reshaped as AI adoption scales across industries and transforms business, said the 2026 Tech Gateway Office Markets report by CBRE Ltd.

The report, released Monday, examined how a tech growth cycle is accelerating leasing activity in 17 markets in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Vancouver saw greater tech industry office leasing activity in 2025 compared to 2023, said the May 11 report.

It was among 12 of the 17 markets that saw increased tech leasing activity, with the largest percentage gains in Manhattan, Toronto and Boston, said the report.

Vancouver saw a rising vacancy rate over the past two years—it increased by about 16 per cent during that period—but the city recorded positive net absorption growth and positive annual rent growth in 2025, said the report.

In Canada more broadly, the tech industry accounted for 14.7 per cent of total leasing in 2025 or 2.8 million square feet. This volume was 55 per cent higher than 2023 but well below peak levels in 2019, similar to the U.S., the report said.

The tech industry share of total Canadian office leasing increased to 32.2 per cent or 1.4 million square feet in the first quarter of 2026, up from 15 per cent in 2025, said the report.

CBRE said AI will create entirely new business opportunities much like mobile devices enabled the app economy more than a decade ago.

It said venture capital (VC) funding reached a record high in 2025 in the U.S., Canada and Europe, and that AI is accounting for a rising share of VC funding.

“The technology industry is in the early stages of what could be a large growth cycle driven by AI development and deployment,” said the report.

“AI innovation will likely create more jobs than it replaces and increase office space leasing demand in tech gateway office markets,” it said.

Still, the report noted that AI-related job cuts are increasing as many tech companies reposition their workforces and capital expenditures.

Online shopping has been the bogeyman of brick-and-mortar retailers since well before the COVID-19 pandemic forced everybody online.

But the reports of the death of in-person retail were greatly exaggerated.

“We’re always talking about the demise of retail because of e-commerce, but it’s persevered over the years,” said Raymond Wong, vice-president of data solutions with Altus Group.

A survey of investment intentions Altus Group conducted last fall indicated that retail was the top choice, thanks to the promise of steady cash flow and appreciation due to few purchase opportunities.

“Number one on the list is still retail – especially food-anchored retail strips – followed by apartments, industrial and office,” Wong said.

Jon Buckley, senior managing director of Marcus & Millichap’s Western Canada NNN Group, which specializes in single-tenant triple-net (NNN) assets, believes transaction volumes and investor interest are now past pre-pandemic levels across all retail asset classes.

“What we’ve noticed post-pandemic is that because there was a negative view towards retail assets for so long, there wasn’t a lot of new supply coming online,” he said. “If anything, you’d see older retail centres being redeveloped into mixed-use residential with retail in the podium, but there wasn’t a lot of new product coming online. And as retailers have continued to perform well, we’ve seen excess tenant demand and limited new supply, so that’s created upward pressure on lease rates. Strong fundamentals and strong metrics have driven a lot of investor demand back towards retail now.”

While grocery-anchored centres and open-air retail strips have shown particular strength, the NNN properties his team specializes in have also performed exceptionally well. Quick service restaurants with drive-thrus are a case in point, thanks to the scarcity of locations.

“There’s just not a lot of corners remaining where you can go and put a drive-thru,” he said. “So, in those existing facilities, they’ve seen upward pressure in rents.”

Drive-thru restaurants have replaced financial institutions as tenant of choice for buyers of single-tenant assets thanks to their reliable income, exceptional covenants and long-term leases.

Most of the big banks have sold their real estate in recent years, Buckley said, so most bank locations are owned by private investors – also the most active type of retail investor in 2025.

This is the case not just for single-tenant assets but also some of B.C.’s largest retail deals last year, including the $140 million acquisition of 798 Granville St., Vancouver, by GJ Group Robson Inc. and Shato Holdings’ $137 million acquisition of Willowbrook Park in Langley.

On the Prairies, one of the most active buyers in recent months has been Montreal-based real estate investment firm Leyad, which acquired St. Vital Centre in Winnipeg for $160.5 million earlier this year as it focuses on properties delivering consistent returns in growth markets.

“This acquisition embodies everything we look for in a community shopping centre,” said Leyad president and CEO Henry Zavriyev in announcing the purchase. “St. Vital Centre is dominant in its market, anchored by essential retail, deeply embedded in the daily lives of the community, and positioned for many decades of continued success. We are proud to become its long-term steward.”

Originally built in 1979, St. Vital Centre underwent a comprehensive renovation and expansion in 1998. It is now one of the top-performing shopping centres in Manitoba, with 926,310 square feet of gross leasable area and 160 retailers, including Indigo, SilverCity, Dollarama, London Drugs and Walmart.

The ambitious goal to build up to 20 new hotels and add 2,000 new rooms to the region over the next decade is gaining momentum with municipalities, First Nations and developers, says the chief executive of Destination Greater Victoria.

Paul Nursey said that as new residential builds wane and the price of land stabilizes, the hotel space is emerging as a “generational opportunity” to address a 25% decline in rooms since 2016 and refresh the hotel landscape to remain competitive in the global tourism industry.

The tourism marketing group assembled a working group of five municipalities, industry partners, builders and the Songhees First Nation last year to work together to bring more hotels to the planning phases.

In 2025, hotel occupancy was at nearly 80% over the entire year and at one point during the summer, reached 94%.

This season is shaping up to be the same or even better, said Nursey.

The region has about 4,500 hotel rooms, but needs more after losing properties for social housing during the pandemic and redevelopment.

The working group issued its first report this week with recommendations for local governments to kick-start new hotel plans by identifying potential sites and zoning, addressing complex permit processes, pursuing First Nations partnerships and supporting the renewal and expansion of existing hotels.

The report notes that existing hotels are aging, with more than half built before 1975 and requiring significant renovations or replacement.

Managers and chief administrative officers from Victoria, Colwood, Saanich, View Royal and Sooke are part of the working group and are taking the lead, said Nursey.

“The municipal partners are really rolling up their sleeves. They are taking this seriously,” Nursey said.

“They see a sense of opportunity and a diversification of their tax base.”

View Royal, for example, doesn’t have a hotel and wants one to attract a slice of the annual visitor pie.

Colwood has recently approved two sites for hotels in the Royal Beach development along its waterfront. Sooke wants more hotels that highlight its waterfront and serve as a gateway to the trail system west of the town.

Jocelyn Jenkins, manager for the City of Victoria, said the city is “happy to collaborate” with the working group on future hotel projects, adding the tourism economy is essential for businesses, the city and the conference centre it owns.

Aryze Developments director Chris Quigley said interest in the hotel sector is gaining strength among developers. The company recently partnered with Victoria software developer Redbrick, which purchased the old Plaza Hotel property in downtown Victoria, to build a new hotel on the property.

He said the working group sets out a road map for companies to “navigate the permitting system and unlock projects” that will strengthen the local economy.

“With several hotel projects in our pipeline, we’re committed to working with local government and our business partners to make a new hotel development in Victoria a reality,” said Quigley.

Recent statistics show hotel demand is on the rise. Greater Victoria showed a jump in average daily room rates — a metric considered a key indicator of the health of the industry — from $200 a night in 2024 to $224 last year. Conferences increased by 20%, and arrivals at Victoria International Airport saw a 5% lift.

In a recent hotel investment report, Colliers said the hotel asset class has seen a surge of activity nationally, with more than $2.2 billion in hotel transactions in 2025, an 11% increase over the previous year. The report cited the strength of domestic tourism and improved international inbound travel, both expected to increase in 2026.

Municipal leaders identified several types of possible new hotels for the region.

Outside of the need for full-service hotels in the downtown core, the group said there could be more affordable mid-scale hotels for sports tournaments and cultural events, boutique hotels connecting visitors to bike and hiking trails and transportation hubs, extended-stay hotels for major employment hubs like the naval base in Esquimalt and Victoria General Hospital in View Royal, and mixed-use developments that pair hotel and residential uses.

The report said 2,000 new hotel rooms would generate more than $100 million in annual visitor spending, 1,180 direct jobs in hotel operations and 1,580 indirect jobs supporting operations.

The 130-room TownPlace Suites by Marriott recently opened at Victoria International Airport, and the same brand is opening a 103-unit, six-storey hotel in Langford next spring.

The first new hotel in Victoria in nearly two decades is under construction on Broad Street. The 167-room Hyatt-branded hotel is expected to open in 2028 at Broad and Johnson streets on the historic Duck’s Building property, preserving the 1890s-era facade and back wall.

Reliance Properties recently submitted new plans to the city for its project at 780 Blanshard St., the former B.C. Power Commission building.

The new plans call for the rehabilitation of the existing building as a 124-room hotel with a public café.

Recent hotel sales have also brought optimism for potential improvements.

This month, Toronto-based InnVest, the country’s largest hotel owner and operator, purchased the Hotel Grand Pacific on Belleville Street. The 304-room hotel, owned since 1996 by Pacific Sun, had been on the market for months. The property’s value is close to $48 million.

The Royal Scot Hotel on Quebec Street was sold this year to Vancouver-based Synvest Capital for about $41 million. Synvest’s hotel management division, Roadside Hospitality, will run the hotel. It will also run the Bedford Regency Hotel, which Synvest purchased last year for $8.9 million.

dkloster@timescolonist.com

Cottage prices are set to rise across Western Canada this year ac­cording to Royal LePage’s spring recreational property report, released March 26.

The strongest growth is forecast for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which will lead the country with 5.5 per cent growth in the median sales value of cottages. This follows 5.7 per cent growth in waterfront cottage prices last year, the strongest growth in Western Canada and the sec­ond-strongest growth rate nationally. Manitoba's Interlake region saw the strongest growth in waterfront cottage prices last year at 6.6 per cent to $395,000 -- an attractive figure versus the regional median of $477,400.

Domestic buyers are driving demand, consistent with other regions, but supply has not kept up, as many properties are generational holds for their families.

Alberta ranks second, with 2.5 per cent growth in median cottage values fore­cast for this year, followed by British Columbia at 1.5 per cent. However, the median value of waterfront retreats in B.C. dropped significantly last year, falling 14.8 per cent. The drop was driven by a 22.6 per cent decline in the Okanagan region.

Royal LePage reports that recreational home inventories through 2025 were largely similar to 2024 volumes, with 69 per cent of recreational real estate agents surveyed indicating that average days on market has increased versus a year ago.

Trends in Western Canada mirror those in Eastern Canada, where more affordable regions are seeing stronger appreciation in values even as the record double-digit growth seen during the pandemic has waned and single-digit growth has become the norm.

Canada's commercial real estate sector could be at a turning point after the national vacancy rates for both office and industrial properties simultaneously declined for the first time since 2020, a new analysis has found.

The report from Colliers International said the national office vacancy rate was 13.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, down one percentage point year-over-year and marking one of the most significant improvements since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada's industrial market, meanwhile, recorded its first national vacancy decline since 2022, down to 3.5 per cent.

The report said these trends suggest the commercial real estate market as a whole is moving toward a more balanced environment.

"It was quite unprecedented how long, especially office vacancy, went up," said Adam Jacobs, head of research for Colliers Canada, in an interview.

"It was a good five or six years of rising rates ... but the return-to-office momentum we've seen, especially in Toronto, has been very rapid in the last six months and it's really turned the market around quite quickly."

He said leasing demand is still concentrated primarily in the "best of the best" buildings, and it could take some time for that momentum to trickle down to other less coveted properties.

Toronto and other major urban centres in Canada are still working through an oversupply of existing office space after a post-pandemic surge of completions, said Ben Haythornthwaite, CoStar Group’s director of market analytics.

"The office market is like if you had a patient in the intensive care ward, they've now moved into the general ward," said Haythornthwaite.

"It's still sick, but it's not getting any worse and that's why we're seeing vacancy tighten up."

While many companies have moved their employees back to the office for at least part of the week, inventory growth is grinding to "a near-total halt," the Colliers report said.

Less than two million square feet of new office space is currently under construction, marking a major downswing from the period of 2021 to 2023. Each quarter during that stretch, an average of 1.8 million square feet of new supply was delivered nationally.

The slowdown in new office builds means Canada is unlikely to see any meaningful supply gains before the end of the decade, given that construction can take roughly three to seven years per project, said Veritas Investment Research analyst Shalabh Garg.

He predicted vacancy rates will continue falling, especially as more office space is also converted for residential use, but won't reach pre-pandemic levels.

"Five to 10 per cent vacancy rate is what's optimal, but it's hard to see us getting there," he said, noting the last time construction activity was this slow was the early 2000s.

"We would need to see lots more conversion of older office space into some different use."

On the industrial side, Jacobs said the market is coming back strong from a brief shock caused by tariffs and trade uncertainty last year.

Market absorption outpaced new supply in the quarter, with more than 3.6 million square feet newly taken up, compared with three million square feet delivered, according to the report.

Jacobs said the trend shows the market is stabilizing after inventory had been piling up.

"Anywhere you live, you can notice a lot of new warehouse space was built in the last five years and there is just kind of a natural cycle to every market," he said.

"It takes a while to absorb it. But I think we're kind of through the other side of that in both the office market and the industrial, where a lot was built, it was difficult to build it all and now the building is really slowing down and we're starting to see those spaces fill up."

Colliers said industrial construction starts were resilient in the first quarter, with 5.6 million square feet of new projects breaking ground. Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary drove 76 per cent of all new starts.

"For the most part, I think we're going to continue seeing demand increase for industrial space and we will see that space absorbed," said Haythornthwaite.

He said industrial markets should continue tightening in the coming years, however the looming renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement continues to cast a shadow of uncertainty in the short-term.

"I think we're probably going to see a slowdown in leasing over the next couple of months, just while people wait and see what happens with that because we're getting so close to it now," said Haythornthwaite.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2026.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

Those seeking a detached house with a couple of bedrooms in Vancouver are likely looking at spending more than $2 million.

But if you want way more bedrooms for a lower price, there's a place up north.

Williston Lake Resort has been on the market since 2024, but recently the cost dropped, as $300,000 was cut from the original price.

That puts the property at $1.7 million, about the same as a Kitsilano duplex. 

But there's a bit more space up north. The 103-acre property is a little smaller than Jericho Beach Park.

On that piece of land, there's a fully functional resort. The 11,000-square-foot main log building has 14 rooms, a commercial kitchen and a lounge with a wet bar and floor-to-ceiling fireplace. It was built by Pioneer Log Homes, the company that was the subject of the show Timber Kings.

There's also a variety of other rooms currently used for recreation, meetings and miscellaneous things.

Outside the lodge, there's also an RV park, animal shelters and more equipment to care for large animals. And nearby, there's plenty of wildlife as it's a remote area.

The resort is on Williston Lake, the biggest lake in B.C. It's also the home to the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, which created the lake. The dam is about 20 minutes away.

Beyond the dam and wildlife, there's Hudson's Hope, the closest community in the area. The town of 1,000 is about 20 minutes away.

Vancouver may be a bit far for a commute. It's about 13 hours away (if the roads are good).

When Vancouver franchisor Pokerrito opened its 11th location on Renfrew Street in mid-October, it demonstrated that innovative and popular restaurant chains can add locations even as other entrepreneurs in the restaurant industry struggle.

All current stores are in Metro Vancouver but Pokerrito has sold master franchise rights to Mexico City and is awaiting that franchisee to open a first location in the Mexican capital soon.

A corporately owned location is readying to open in a newly leased property in Toronto.

Executing well in the franchising game can be trickier than simply expanding a corporately owned chain.

Pokerrito owner Jung Moon told BIV he had experience running a Japanese sushi restaurant before the 2016 launch of his first Pokerrito location—a poke restaurant on Dunsmuir Street in downtown Vancouver.

That demonstrated his passion for restaurants and Asian cuisine.

“I chose downtown deliberately,” Moon said of his first location. “With the high rent, intense competition, and demanding customers, if we could make it there, we could make it anywhere. It was trial by fire, but it validated our concept.”

By 2019, when he started franchising the concept, he operated two Pokerrito eateries. Today, four of Moon’s 11 locations are corporately owned, with seven separate franchisees owning one location each.

Moon uses corporately owned locations to test new products, he said.

Moon’s aim is to grow his chain, but not as fast as possible or to reach some per-determined numerical target.

“I'm cautious about putting specific numbers out there,” he said. “I've seen too many [franchisors] chase growth targets and lose what made them special.”

If success in Mexico City and Toronto materializes, he said he would look for more new territories to expand.

“Whether that becomes 30 locations or 70 by 2030, I'm less concerned about the number than making sure each one represents what Pokerrito stands for.”

Veteran franchisors have tips

Entrepreneurs with decades of experience in franchising say sure-footed, steady growth is wise, as is rejecting prospective franchisees who do not feel like a good fit for the business even if they have ample resources.

“It's always easier to say that no to someone before they start than six months into the game,” said Brian Scudamore, who in 1998 started franchising 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and has built it to around 150 franchises.

Scudamore also owns and built the 50-franchise WOW 1 Day Painting and the 50-franchise Shack Shine.

“If you bring on a franchise partner and they've paid a big fee and you haven't delivered what you've promised, or they're not happy and they want out, it's very, very difficult and expensive to part ways,” he said.

Scudamore added that he sees many young franchisors bring people into their businesses because they have money instead of people who have the skills and character traits needed to thrive.

Another big tip is to avoid franchising a business before it is what Scudamore called a “well-oiled, well-systematized machine.”

Franchises must rely on a system, and not the skill base of the founder, Scudamore said.

That is why it is hard to franchise surgery, he said, explaining that surgeons learn their skills over many years and are regulated to practice.

Health-care tasks, therefore, are very different from straightforward tasks involved in junk removal, house painting and window washing.

A successful franchising company must be able to consistently execute its offering in the same way in every city the owner wants to be in, Scudamore said. 

A key question Scudamore said he asks himself is: “Is it simple enough that you can create the technological systems and the operating systems that someone can repeat the success that you've created?”

Another key point is that successful franchises usually also have a point of differentiation. They stand out because of something distinctive that they offer, he said.

When it came to launching 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Scudamore’s vision was to have shiny trucks, uniformed workers, on-time service and an upfront price list—something he said the industry lacked at the time.

Mistakes can happen.

Scudamore said one was getting involved with a moving company.

He said he thrives on positive energy, and that he parted ways with the company because of the feeling customers often had when jobs were completed.

“We discovered it wasn't a happy business,” he said.

Customers who have junk taken away are relieved. When they have their houses painted or washed, they feel the joy, he said.

Scudamore said that when someone’s possessions are moved, the customer still feels angst at having to unpack, or they find an item is missing or broken and they are not necessarily happy.

“Moving is a commodity-based business,” he said. “It is very, very competitive and we found it a challenge to truly stand out.”

Bruce Fox, who worked for years helping Boston Pizza expand its franchising and more recently helping steer Browns Restaurant Group to 83 locations, added some other lessons.

He said aspiring franchisors should hire a professional group of advisors because processes can be tricky.

Fox was COO at Browns and is now a business advisor at the company, which has 68 Browns Socialhouse restaurants as well as eateries branded Browns Crafthouse, Liberty Kitchen and Scotty Browns.

All of those locations are franchised except for one Browns Socialhouse and one Browns Crafthouse, said Fox, who sometimes acts as a consultant at his Catalyst Hospitality Consulting Group.

“You need an understanding lender too,” Fox said.

“That’s a banker who has actually seen inside franchise systems and knows what the capital requirements are, and the timing and what the cycles look like.”

Fox said one-time fees tend to rise along with the total investment needed to open a franchised location, and with expected annual revenue.

One-time fees also often rise based on the size of the franchised chain and how well established the franchisor’s brand is in a market.

Browns’ franchises pay a $75,000 one-time fee and then contribute an ongoing six-per-cent royalty.

Unlike many franchised chains, Browns does not require franchisees to pay a separate marketing fee. That is because, Fox said, disputes commonly erupt between franchisors and franchisees on what kind of advertising should take place.

Browns has no advertising at all, which eliminates that potential source for conflict, he said.

Moon’s Pokerrito charges a $30,000 one-time fee—something that Fox described as being “fairly low.” Pokerrito also charges a six-per-cent royalty and a two-per-cent marketing fee.

The total buildout cost for a franchisee at Pokerrito is likely about $450,000, Moon told BIV. In contrast, Fox estimated that a Browns Socialhouse buildout costs in the $3.5 million to $4 million range.

“The biggest lesson: franchising isn't about losing quality control,” Moon said. “It's about multiplying your impact through the right partners. Your first franchisee is the most important. They set the tone for everyone who follows.” 

gkorstrom@biv.com

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Despite a weak Canadian dollar, rising unemployment and a shrinking national GDP, B.C.’s hotel industry appears to be showing a level of collective resilience not seen this decade.

CBRE Ltd. senior vice-president Nicole Nguyen with the brokerage’s valuation and advisory services group told Western Investor that B.C. markets across the Okanagan and Interior, along with Vancouver Island, saw high occupancy and transaction rates over the summer on par with pre-COVID-19 levels.

“We're back to or beyond, in many cases, 2019’s peak industry performance from both the top line and, most importantly, on the bottom-line standpoint,” Nguyen said.

The metrics used to gauge the hotel industry’s pulse include occupancy and capacity rates, overall revenue, revenue per available room (RevPAR) and average daily rate (ADR), among others.

CBRE’s 2026 Hotels Outlook report issued Sept. 15 indicates that B.C.’s hotel sector is outpacing every other region in the country.

Province-wide occupancy levels have consistently sat around 70 per cent since 2023, while ADR numbers were pegged at $252 million – a significant jump from 2019’s five-year low of $192 million. B.C.’s RevPAR numbers also reached a five-year high: $178 million this year compared to $136 million in 2019.

Ontario and Quebec’s occupancy rates hovered between 66 and 67 per cent; ADR numbers were at $210 and $233 million respectively; and RevPAR stats place Ontario at $141 million and Quebec at $153 million.

Nguyen said two major factors are driving the provincial sector’s recent success: fewer domestic travellers headed to the U.S. and less wildfire disruption.

While the 2025 wildfire season was vast in scope, its impacts didn’t include widespread displacement or trip cancellations. Tofino, Victoria and southern Vancouver Island, Kamloops and Kelowna and the Rocky Mountain region straddling the B.C.-Alberta border all performed well, Nguyen said.

The Metro Vancouver-wide snapshot was somewhat sluggish on the transaction side largely due to the nature of the owners. As Nguyen explains, those assets are often held by large, private investors or long-term owners such as pension funds.

New builds in major metro markets are also hampered by land, input and labour costs, along with the time it takes to get to market, and investor risk. When activity in those major markets see an uptick, it’s most often the purchase of existing properties rather than new builds.

“It's incredibly difficult to get an asset in Vancouver and it's the same in Toronto,” Nguyen said. “Once you have [a hotel property], it's rare that they transact and that's just because of the style of ownership.”

Macdonald Commercial Real Estate Services Ltd.’s Nick Goulet is the only commercial agent based on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As of mid-September, Goulet’s firm was overseeing the sale of the Tofino Motel Harbourview, a 13-room motel at the entrance to Tofino with an asking price of $6.2 million.

“Buyer activity in the hospitality market, especially with boutique hotels and motels like the Tofino Motel Harbourview, has been noticeably strong,” Goulet said. “I continue to see steady interest from groups both on and off the Island, and I’m speaking with buyers on a regular basis about opportunities here.”

Goulet has seen considerable uptick from lifestyle buyers wanting income properties in coastal locations who are largely unbothered by the geopolitical unease between Canada and the U.S.  

“I've experienced a notable amount of interest from U.S. investors on various investments,” Goulet said. “The buyers I’m dealing with are focused more on the long-term appeal of the Island.”

Further south down the Island, JBW Commercial broker Harry Jones recently helped close a deal on Victoria’s iconic Bedford Regency Hotel. The purchaser paid $8.9 million, and Jones said plans are to maintain the property as a hotel operation.

Jones’ sense of the Capital Region market isn’t as bullish as his west coast counterpart – instead, Jones views the trends as “active, but selective.”

“The market isn't what it was a handful of years ago when things were flying off the shelf,” Jones said. “But we're still seeing a strong, strong amount of activity on the investment sale side of things.”

Jones’ tempered approach is shared by Nguyen as she looks forward to the rest of 2025 and into 2026.

Nguyen points to several precursors that could interrupt the travel and hotel sectors moving forward: the national GDP shrinking by 1.6 per cent in the second quarter and a rise in both unemployment and core inflation.

“Generally bookings are made 60 to 70 days out when most people make their decision about where they're going,” Nguyen said. “As the economic data starts continuing to shift, if the unemployment continues to rise and we continue to see really poor output out of the economy, the hotel industry will catch up fast. I can tell you that from other downturns, the tap turns off really quick in those situations.”

                                                                                                                             Jami Makan   Sep 4, 2025 7:30 AM

Notable deals and a sizable development pipeline indicate a robust self-storage market in Western Canada, where migration, density and business users are driving demand. 

Nearly four million square feet of new supply is expected in B.C. and Alberta together between now and 2028, said Antonio Balogh, national market intelligence lead with commercial real estate services firm Avison Young (Canada) Inc. 

New supply in B.C. represents 26 per cent of national self-storage construction, and in Alberta it represents 15 per cent, in both cases topping their existing market share in Canada, he said in a statement. 

“Today, we are seeing multiple demand drivers cementing a compelling long-term investment strategy for self-storage real estate, especially in Western Canada,” he said. 

Recent deals have included QuadReal Property Group LP’s purchase of Maple Leaf Self Storage Inc.’s 15-facility portfolio in B.C. and Alberta, a deal disclosed in May and estimated at close to $1 billion. 

U.S.-based SmartStop Self Storage REIT Inc. has also been an active player in Western Canada, acquiring a 74,000-square-foot facility in Kelowna in April for US$29.1 million and backing Strategic Storage Growth Trust III Inc.’s acquisition of a 52,500-square-foot East Vancouver facility in June for more than $35 million. 

SmartStop also recently acquired five properties in Alberta from Bluebird Self Storage, which made its own purchase of a newly built facility in Victoria in March for $26.7 million. 

“People need places to store things as the population grows and as the inventory of housing grows,” said Kirk Kuester, executive managing director in the Vancouver office of commercial brokerage Colliers Canada, which was involved in the East Vancouver deal. 

“Units are smaller and people are getting by with way smaller spaces to live in and way fewer storage options within their places,” he said. 

Self-storage is tied not just to migration and smaller housing, but also to warehouse availability. 

“We’ve seen a pretty large increase in commercial users of storage, especially in major metropolitan cores, because there’s a distinct lack of warehouse space,” said Patrick Wood, a partner with Victoria-based brokerage JBW Commercial Inc. 

Some retailers rent storage units for the months leading up to Christmas and then vacate them after the holiday season, he said. Meanwhile, some Fraser Valley companies are re-supplying their technicians who work in downtown Vancouver from nearby storage units, reducing travel time. 

“It’s a cost-saving thing. Because a lot of self-storage facilities are pretty well located, it really brings efficiencies to a lot of businesses,” Wood said. 

Avison Young’s Balogh said the adequacy of self-storage supply is based on the square footage of rentable storage space per capita. Ontario and B.C. lead the way at 32 and 31 square feet per capita, respectively. Alberta’s supply is relatively tighter at 25 square feet per capita, while Manitoba and Saskatchewan are below 15 square feet per capita, he said. 

“While new supply in Manitoba and Saskatchewan is more muted up to this point, the tight existing supply per capita creates potential for a quick spark,” he said. 

Those interested in entering the storage industry may see slightly higher cap rates “mostly because storage is an operating business,” JBW’s Wood said. 

Rental rate growth has stabilized to around 3 to 4 per cent a year, after big increases during the pandemic, he said. 

Yet self-storage requires “very active” management due to short-term leasing and the need for constant marketing, Wood added. 

Self-storage is an active, alternative asset class similar to student housing, senior housing and data centres, said Colliers’ Kuester. 

“They appeal to a unique investor, and it’s an investor that quite often is very focused strategically on alternatives,” he said.

A B.C. judge has upheld a Labour Relations Board decision that found grocery giant Sobeys Inc. obtains the majority of the profits and exercises “substantial financial control” over its franchised FreshCo grocery stores.

The Aug. 1 ruling represents a win for United Food Commercial Workers International Union, Local 1518, who had challenged the grocer and several franchisees—claiming they had attempted to escape an existing collective bargaining agreement through re-branding. 

In 2017, the union represented nearly 5,000 workers at Sobeys’ roughly 60 Safeway stores in B.C. The workers had a 10-year collective agreement that ran until 2023. Part of the agreement required further negotiations with the union if Sobeys sought to open stores under a new name. 

That year, the grocer gave the union notice it planned to convert up to a quarter of its existing Safeway stores in Western Canada into stores under the FreshCo banner. 

In 2018, the company told the union its planned restructuring would lead the company to close 10 B.C. Safeway stores and terminate the employees who worked there. Sobeys also said five of the stores may reopen as FreshCo locations pending negotiations of the collective agreement.

In negotiations with the union, the grocer sought to create single-store collective bargaining agreements. The dispute ended when an arbiter required a single province-wide agreement for both Safeway and FreshCo stores, in line with the union’s demands. 

A year later, Sobeys said it would continue closing several Safeway stores, converting them into FreshCo and other discount banners—this time under a franchise model, according to a recent judicial review. In 2019, Sobeys told the union to direct any labour relations issues to the new owners of the stores. 

The union then took Sobeys and five of the franchised stores to the Labour Relations Board, where it sought to maintain the B.C.-wide collective agreement. 

In its original decision, the board found Sobeys used contractual arrangements, clearly interdependent operations, and common management to exercise “substantial control” over the FreshCo franchisees. It granted the union’s application and declared Sobeys and the franchisees to be a single employer. 

Sobeys challenged the decision before the Labour Relations Board’s reconsideration panel. In a June 26, 2024, decision, the panel re-examined two questions: whether the entities were under common control and direction; and whether there was a labour relations purpose served in making the declaration. 

Among other things, Sobeys submitted evidence it said showed the franchisees operate as business competitors with conflicting interests.

Ultimately, however, the reconsideration panel was not persuaded that the board had erred in its original decision and reiterated that Sobeys exercises substantial control over the franchisees’ FreshCo stores.  

Sobeys and the franchisees then escalated the dispute to the B.C. Supreme Court.

In her judicial review, Justice Francesca Marzari found the reconsideration panel’s decision was entirely within their expertise. The panel members were “clear and comprehensive” when it set out “a rationale for its decision on the fundamental question of common control” of the companies, wrote the judge in the decision handed down last week but released Tuesday. 

Marzari once again rejected arguments that individual franchisees must exercise control over each other to show a group of companies has common control or direction as a single employer.

“This court only interferes with such decisions where the reasoning or result borders on the absurd,” wrote the judge.

Marzari dismissed the application for judicial review and ordered Sobeys and the FreshCo franchisees to pay the union's legal costs.