London has Canada’s second highest percentage of downtown office vacancies: Report

Downtown London, Ont. on Feb. 2, 2021. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV London)

London has Canada’s second highest percentage of office space vacancies in its downtown.

The finding comes from the just-released Q4 2023 Canada Office Figures from CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment company.

CBRE reports the core vacancy rate rose to 28.5 per cent.

That’s up from 27.3 per cent in the previous quarter and marks the third consecutive quarter of office market slowing.

London’s suburban office space vacancies also climbed slightly, moving from 10 per cent in Q3 to 10.6 per cent in Q4.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) announced this past summer that their headquarters would be moving from the GTA to the former 3M Canada head offices on Tartan Drive.

The CBRE noted that the move, scheduled to take place in 2025, will draw approximately 400 workers from the downtown and will bring an additional 100 jobs to London.

WSIB officials said the move should generate approximately 2,000 spin-off jobs.

The CBRE report said the national downtown office vacancy rate also hit a record high of 19.4 per cent in the final quarter of 2023, impacted by soft demand in Toronto.

On a positive note, the report noted vacancy improvements in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Halifax.