Office and retail were diagnosed as stricken asset classes early in the pandemic, but after 20 months on the disabled list, conventional venues for labour and shopping are rallying to fight for market share.

Daily vigilance is central to achieving operational energy savings, but rare decisions typically have the most acute carbon consequences in buildings.

Many commercial real estate operators are making the simple business case for buildings that are functional for all potential users. It’s a quest that can begin with simple investigations, simple low-cost measures and simple mindfulness.

Canadian hotels still aren’t making the Dean’s list for investment performance, but market analysts appear confident that rallying conditions are pushing the sector in a positive direction.

Ontario’s civic building inventory has fallen the farthest behind on capital repair among seven categories of municipal infrastructure assets scrutinized in a newly released report from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario.

Developers are facing escalating material costs, supply chain disruptions and labour shortages in step with climbing vacancies and falling rental rates that were not contemplated 18 months ago.

Market analysts anticipate more capital flowing into the sector as vacancies tighten and rental rates rise, and they warn that available space is nearing depletion in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal if leasing continues at the recent pace.

Cold storage facilities are flagged to deliver robust returns to investors due to the evolution of food retailing, demand for vaccines and other pharmaceuticals, and the thriving outlook for the warehouse/distribution and logistics sector in general.

Securities regulators wish to confirm that the representations registrants are making about the incorporation of ESG principles in their investment decision-making processes are consistent with their actual policies and procedures.

COVID-19 has intensified pressure to support physical, social and emotional well-being within the built environment, but many investors, owners and managers were already embracing healthy building principles ahead of pandemic-triggered challenges.

Reflecting on a year in which the pandemic unsettled market fundamentals to the east and to the west, Calgary-based analysts focus more on tangential circumstances than the COVID-19 outbreak itself.

An influx of new office supply was always expected to shake up the status quo in the downtown Toronto market given that approximately two-thirds of the 8+ million square feet of space currently under construction is already preleased.

Canadian commercial real estate assets are comparatively less exposed to the dire physical threats that extreme weather poses or has already served up in other global regions.

A ten-year run of capital growth abruptly reversed, resulting in a 7.8 per cent loss of value across the 2,356 assets that the 44 portfolios represented in the Canada Annual Property Index hold.

Newly released 2020 investment results find industrial and multifamily assets on the positive side of the national average total return for 2,356 directly held standing assets, which registered -4.1 per cent.

Commercial real estate investors, owners and managers are acknowledging that entrenched social inequities undermine their workforces, their tenants and the value of their portfolios.

Industrial availability tightened from the third quarter in eight of the 11 surveyed markets, ending the year at well below 2 per cent in Vancouver and Montreal and below 1 per cent in Toronto.