Saskatchewan’s commercial real estate market is on the mend in 2025

After what some real estate experts are calling a capital crisis, momentum in Saskatchewan and Canada’s commercial real estate investment market is finally bouncing back.

“Interest rates have certainly come down and I think the view is still they’ll come down probably more slowly than we initially thought,” Michael Bratvold, the CBRE senior vice-president said. “That sort of changes that dynamic for growth. Companies can grow more easily when there’s capital to do so.”

Bratvold said institutional capital, which has been on the sidelines, is expected to return to the market and projected to push Canadian commercial real estate investment volumes to about $48 billion in 2025.

He said this will create numerous new growth opportunities like the success seen in Saskatoon’s River Landing.

“River Landing has really been, I think from any sort of position, quite a success,” Bratvold said. “That’s more than 400,000 square feet of office space that’s been filled in less than two years.”

Bratvold highlights the importance of growing the city’s downtown core as a way to help boost the market. He said it has largely been fuelled by Saskatchewan’s resource sector.

“BHP and Nutrien have both increased their office presence in Saskatoon over the past year and that is to service some of those large projects that they’ve announced,” he explained. “And then with that we’re going to get some of that ancillary growth which will be good for this market.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, incentivizing office work as opposed to working from home has been important for many businesses.

Downtown YXE said something that can help bring people back to the office is done by bringing amenities near the workplace.

“There have been some really great projects that have come to fruition such as River Landing and there’s just a lot more that’s been going on down there,” Shawna Nelson, the Downtown Saskatoon Business Improvement District executive director said.

“We see that every year since it’s opened, there’s been a lot more events and activities that are going on there, and of course we’ve got the library.”

For Bratvold, it all comes down to getting people back downtown. He argues it is one of the best ways for the commercial real estate industry to flourish.

“As a city we need to compete with other cities of our size,” he said. “I think how you do that is develop your downtown. Because every city needs sort of that heartbeat downtown and that’s why these projects are important.”

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