The Atlantic Canada real estate advisory firm, Turner Drake & Partners, reports the office vacancy rate in St. John’s rose again year over year, and now sits at 17.21 per cent overall. Up from 15.96 per cent a year ago, this marks the fifth straight year of vacancy increases for the city.

The St. John’s market is broken down into five submarkets: the two smallest submarkets, Central – fell from 10.83 per cent to 7.37 per cent – and Mount Pearl –dropped from 16.57 per cent to 10.41 per cent. Together, these submarkets represent less than 20 per cent of the total gross leasable area (GLA) in the rental market.

Recent years have seen additions to supply totalling over 800,000 ft.² in these submarkets, resulting in a downtown vacancy rate of 26.69 per cent, up from 22.15 per cent a year ago, a vacancy rate of 16.31 per cent in North St. John’s, up from 14.85 per cent a year ago, and a comparatively moderate 11.12 per cent vacancy rate in the East & West submarket, up from 10.17 per cent in 2017.

According to a press release the construction boom which started when oil prices were high, but which saw buildings coming on stream just as oil prices tumbled and the economy contracted accordingly, is felt particularly in the remaining submarkets.