Greater Toronto Area Commercial Real Estate
Investment Review
First Quarter 2022
Investment in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) commercial real estate market remained elevated in the first quarter of 2022, after record-setting annual and quarterly results were posted in the previous quarter.
Buyers’ eagerness to deploy capital demonstrated their confidence in the market’s sound fundamentals and future potential. In a first since the onset of the pandemic, the office sector recorded the highest transaction dollar volume in the GTA, with ICI land and industrial assets not far behind.
GTA Investment Activity by Sector and Dollar Volume
4%
Average cap rate for all asset types GTA-wide – unchanged quarter-over-quarter
4,564
Total acreage of first-quarter GTA ICI land sales (more than 99% outside the City of Toronto)
194
GTA-wide retail asset sales – 29% of the quarter’s total number of transactions
GTA Investment Volume
GTA Select Capitalization Rates
Office
After falling out of favour with investors since the start of the pandemic and showing signs of recovery in the last quarter of 2021, the office sector continued its comeback in the first quarter of 2022.
ICI Land
Investment dollar volume for ICI land assets was down 16% quarter-over-quarter to slightly less than $1.6 billion in first-quarter 2022 (23% of GTA total); however, this total represents an increase of 97% compared with the same quarter one year earlier, as investors and developers continue to clamour for land amid the GTA’s ongoing frenzy of development activity.
Industrial
Following two consecutive strong quarterly results in the second half of 2021, investment in GTA industrial assets declined 30% quarter-over-quarter to $1.6 billion (representing 23% of the overall GTA total) in first-quarter 2022.
Retail
Coming off a record-high investment total in 2021, the retail sector posted $1 billion in transactions (14% share) during first-quarter 2022 – down 18% from a banner result in the previous quarter, but up 44% compared with first-quarter 2021.
Multi-Residential
The only sector with less than $1 billion in transaction volume during the first quarter was multi-residential, which posted $909 million in trades (13% share) – up just 1% quarter-over-quarter but 42% compared with the same quarter one year earlier.
Steven Preston Research Manager, Downtown Toronto steven.preston@avisonyoung.com +1 416.673.4010
Warren D'Souza Research Manager, Suburban Markets warren.dsouza@avisonyoung.com +1 905.283.2331
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