Northern Light
Superstar
A premature conclusion.
The space under construction is not speculative; it's leased.
The anchor tenant in this case, is a large Canadian Bank, one that needs the space, was consolidating suburban and downtown sites here, and one which is growing.
The very low commercial vacancy rate does not indicate a likihood of a commercial office market collapse.
It's entirely reasonable to expect some shift, and some slow down.
But SB and many other companies have already shifted to 'agile space' without private offices with many staff who don't keep rigid office hours.
Yes, this will probably accelerate that trend........but if you shave 10% off projected demand 5 years out in Toronto, you will get greater space needs than you have today.
Certainly this may stall some of the pre-construction projects; we really have to see how long this lasts and whether productivity of WFH employees holds up too.
But given what I know to be in the pipeline and whose searching out space and how much, i think this is likely more deferral of some demand than squashing it.
If the latter, it's more likely to be due to catastrophic economic damage than a large-scale shift to WFH.
But that's all just a guess; we'll know, after the fact.
