Vancouver Office Vacancy Drops to 9.5%: What the Flight to Quality Means for Downtown Condo Owners and Investors

According to October 2026 data reported by Colliers and featured in Western Investor, Vancouver's office vacancy rate has inched down to 9.5% in recent months after downtown vacancies hit 21-year highs last fall. Glenn Gardner, a principal with Avison Young in Vancouver, notes that organizations have grown more comfortable operating amid uncertainty and are now making longer-term real estate decisions again. Demand is concentrating in top-tier space, with professional services firms and U.S.-based tech companies expanding existing holdings or taking new space. Gardner also points to rumblings of new AI-sector entrants considering the Vancouver market, a potential demand driver that could play out over the next six to twelve months.

The improvement follows years of post-pandemic disruption where a pre-pandemic building boom left an oversupply hangover. That excess supply has been slowly absorbed over the past two to three years, according to Lou Ficocelli, vice-president of leasing at Cadillac Fairview. Large-block availabilities in AAA buildings are now diminishing, pushing tenants toward well-amenitized Class A space downtown. However, not all office stock is recovering equally. Major projects such as 1166 West Pender—originally announced in 2022—are being repositioned by Reliance and Hines into a mix of hotel and residential uses. Similarly, Reliance is partnering with Germain Hotels to convert the office tower at 1111 West Hastings into a hotel, signalling that older or less competitive office product is exiting the commercial inventory permanently.