Property management and commercial brokerage services generated more than $160 billion worth of economic activity and underpinned more than 406,000 full-time jobs across the Canadian economy last year. That represents a significant chunk of commercial real estate’s broad economic impact through direct, indirect and induced spending and employment tied to both new construction and existing asset operations.

A newly released report sponsored by the real estate and development industry association, NAIOP, pegs the macro numbers at:

• CAD $342.3 billion in total economic activity, based on the volume of goods consumed across all surveyed CRE sectors;
• a CAD $172.5 billion contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP), measuring the added value that commercial real estate injected into economy; and
• more than 1 million full-time jobs, accounting for workers directly employed in construction and existing asset operations, service providers to those sectors and other jobs that incomes earned through commercial real estate support.

The report, which was prepared by the CRE advisory firm, Altus Group, under the direction of its chief economist, Peter Norman, refreshes findings from a previous 2021 edition and concludes that high interest rates underpin a slight contraction in economic activity and jobs from three years earlier. A seeming 23 per cent increase in overall economic activity is attributed largely to inflation-triggered higher construction costs, while real economic activity actually dipped about 2 per cent.

A 36 per cent decline in new office construction and a decrease 24 per cent in brokerage activities, relative to 2021, are identified as the leading contributors to that result. Although 2024 saw interest rates easing from 2022 and 2023 levels, the report also acknowledges the challenges 2025 has brought.

“The Canadian economy in 2024 experienced modest growth amid lingering inflation pressures and high interest rates,” it states. “Canada’s next major macroeconomic challenge will involve disruptions to the economy, and potentially the CRE sector, from the evolving trade dispute with the U.S. and, more broadly, fallout from potential disruptions to trade globally.”

Total value of commercial real estate transactions in 2024 was19 per cent lower than in 2021 — falling from $44.5 billion to $36.2 billion (excluding land sales), and flowing through to a corresponding drop in brokerage fees. However, record-high transaction volume in 2021 also contributes to the magnitude of the gap. Canada-wide, commercial brokerages collected more than $8.1 billion in fees last year, which surpasses the three pre-pandemic years from 2017 to 2019.

In 2024, property management and operations generated more than $144 billion in economic activity and contributed nearly $86 billion to GDP. In contrast with construction and brokerage services, that’s an upward trend since 2021. That’s related to the post-pandemic rebound and more workers returning to the office.

Commercial brokerage services generated an estimated 63,440 direct, indirect or induced full-time jobs last year, with 27,180 of those workers directly employed in the sector. Commercial property management is a larger benefactor, generating more than 343,000 direct, indirect or induced full-time jobs, with nearly 68,000 workers directly involved in property management or in-house operations.

Last year saw approximately $22.5 billion in employee earnings arise from existing asset operations (both property management and brokerage services), including $5.27 billion paid to workers directly employed in those sectors.