Concerns are emerging that a building boom of office towers in downtown Vancouver is creating far too much supply.

Only half the 2.18 million square feet of new office space in seven towers under construction downtown — a boom enabled by new zoning bylaws in 2009 — has been preleased, executives at the Vancouver Real Estate Forum said Thursday.

“I am not seeing a lot of office demand right now, and that is concerning to me,” Bart Corbett, senior vice-president of Cushman & Wakefield, said in an interview.

Corbett and other executives discussed office space development and economic trends at a panel discussion titled “The Vancouver Hangover?”

A common theme was that Vancouver’s commercial real estate market is slowing. The panel was asked how eager landlords are to offer inducements to would-be tenants, and which sectors among high-tech startups, resource industry offices, or “slow and steady” traditional businesses, are preferred.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/business/real+estate+executives+gather+discuss+Vancouver+housing+trends/9530873/story.html

A recent survey of assessed values gives a glimpse at how the BC Assessment Authority is looking at commercial properties in Metro Vancouver in 2014.

Below is a random survey of various asset types in nine separate areas. The annual change in assessed values was derived from a random sample of five properties in each category. While this is by no means a scientific survey, it does show some variation that is interesting.

As we ring in the New year, an analysis of the REBGV’s Housing Price Index for apartment/condo’s on Vancouver Westside, including Downtown, shows that pricing has been flat for over two years now.

Resales values have likely been suppressed amid a large amount of new inventory coming to market; particularly in areas like Southeast False Creek and Cambie Corridor.