A 7-storey office building at the corner of West Pender and Hornby has sold for $20,300,000, or $495 per sq ft. The 41,000 sq ft building was built in 1968 and had been marketed for sale in early 2012.

The purchaser was a local investor. The top floor has been vacant and can be renovated to allow use as office space.

A 14-unit three-storey walkup apartment building in Kits has sold for $4,800,000, or a 3.1% cap rate ($343,000 per unit). The building, located at 2250 York Avenue contains one and two bedroom units and had been listed for sale for $5,600,000. The property is zoned RM-4.

A commercially designated site near Lougheed and Willingdon in the Brentwood town centre area has sold.

4488 Halifax Street is a 18,299 sq ft site that is located mid-block on Halifax Street west of Willingdon Avenue.

The property, which has been vacant for several years, sold for $3,313,000. Previous development inquiries for the site included office & commercial schemes at densities up to 6.0 FAR.

747 Cardero Street, a 2-storey office building at Cardero and Alberni Streets in Downtown Vancouver has sold for $2,800,000, or about $995 per sq ft. The building had been fully vacant at the time of sale.

Retail continues to be in high demand in  White Rock as an investment, particularly due to the ongoing demand on behalf of investors to find buildings in well-established safe markets. In particular, White Rock has seen relatively little new construction over the past several years. This is a small market that is difficult to buy into and this has been reflected in increasing rental rates and values.

Retail assets that have traded over the past 10 years have typically been streetfront retail, with most sales occurring in the Marine Drive and town centre areas.

Current cap rates for retail tend to be between 5.0% and 6.0% in this market, and have exhibited gradually increasing average prices over the past 10 years as follows:

Source: Colliers Research