Canada Flexible Office Space Market - Growth, Trends (2022 - 2027)

Canada Flexible Office Space Market - Growth, Trends (2022 - 2027)

Canada Flexible Office Space Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 4% during the forecast period (2022-2027).

With tenants realizing that pandemic-driven uncertainty is set to continue, they’re increasingly incorporating flex space into their workplace strategies as they move toward a more agile footprint that adapts to their changing needs.

Employers and employees have very different preferences in terms of managing the return to the physical office. Companies can reconcile these differences with flex space. Looking ahead, the broader concept of flexibility will be critical for the office market—not just in terms of how spaces are designed and used, but also in the physical locations where people gather and work.

Many companies are experimenting with remote working as the disruptions of the pandemic reach the two-year milestone. While there wasn’t any growth in co-working early in the pandemic, Canada is now seeing increased interest in suburban touchdown spaces where employees can work remotely and avoid commutes to a downtown head office.

Key Market TrendsCapital City Leads the Market

The Toronto market stands out as the national leader with regard to flex office inventory, representing 40.8% of the country’s total flex inventory, totaling 2.7M square feet. Canada’s next three largest markets, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary, proportionately take up 1.4M square feet (20.8%), 836,000 square feet (12.7%), and 784,000 (11.9%) of national flex office inventory, respectively. The majority of Canadian markets remain in the infancy stage of flex office space, with eight of the twelve markets totaling less than 300,000 square feet of inventory.

With further compression of the region’s 4.0% office vacancy rate (Q4 2019), acceleration of rental rate growth in core submarkets, and home to the country’s largest tech hub, flex office is incredibly popular among Toronto’s tenants as it allows them to be nimble in a rapidly evolving market.

Lately, the office space lease numbers are on an upswing. IBM Canada announced a new office in Downtown Toronto in 2021. This new space will include an AI and hybrid cloud client showcase centre, collaboration spaces for use by both employees and clients, and space for IBM Garage, a globally recognized design approach to innovation and digital transformation. This space will be located at 16 York Street Toronto.

Recently CBRE, one of Canada’s largest commercial real estate firms released their Q1 2021 report which highlighted the Downtown Toronto core. CIBC Square, a flagship development by Ivanhoe Cambridge and Hines completed construction in the first quarter of 2021 bringing 1,500,000 sq. ft. of Class A space to the Downtown Toronto market with CIBC being the anchor tenant.

In 2022, the asking rent for office space in Downtown Toronto amounted to CAD 41.9 per square foot. Downtown South Toronto was the most expensive submarket in the city, followed by the Financial Core submarket. Although quantitative measures continue to point to a suppressed market, there are signs of optimism: an uptick in qualitative measures such as tour activity and interest from prospective tenants, as reported by brokers and landlords.

Market Saturation is Still Low

Proportionate to conventional office inventory, market saturation of 1.1% for flex office space across Canadian markets is extremely low. Even the Toronto market – the country’s leader in recent growth and overall inventory – totaled market saturation of only 1.1%. Comparatively, international markets such as London and Manhattan reported market saturation levels of 5.1% and 2.1%, respectively.

Among Canadian markets, Waterloo measured the highest market saturation level of 2.0%, exceeding the national average by 90 basis points. This higher proportion of flex space within a smaller office suggests that Waterloo’s significant tech presence has been a catalyst for its coworking growth. Apart from Waterloo, the only other market suggesting more significant market saturation compared to the rest of Canada was Vancouver, recorded at 1.9%.

Toronto is the capital of Ontario and a global financial center. Ontario generates a large portion of Canada’s GDP, which means that office real estate is vital for the region. Downtown Toronto had significantly more office space inventory than Midtown Toronto, and also a lower vacancy rate. Toronto had one of the lowest vacancy rate for office space among leading cities in North America in 2020. Vancouver had the second lowest vacancy rate, whereas Montreal had the highest among the cities in the region. Vancouver has one of the most expensive housing markets globally, yet demand for office space in lower than in Toronto.

Competitive Landscape

Canada Flexible Office Space Market is fragmented with lot of companies in the industry. The developers are trying to bring new and lower cost products to meet the current demand. Evolving technological advancements such as new proptech solutions are driving the market in terms of increased transactions and better management of the real estate services. Some of the major players in the Canada are Regus, WeWork, Workhaus, iQ Offices, LiquidSpace among others.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

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