Journal
Notes on the Ottawa market.
Market letters, buying & selling guides, neighbourhood notes, investor and commercial analysis.
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Ottawa retail vacancy is 15 buildings, not downtown
Oct 31, 2026 · 4 min read
Fifteen regional malls and power centres hold 79% of Ottawa's vacant retail space. The downtown core holds 3%. The September headlines said the opposite, so I did the multiplication.
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Ottawa office Q3: CBRE sees 10 bps, Altus sees 110
Oct 24, 2026 · 4 min read
Two brokerages measured Ottawa office space for Q3 2026 and got a 10 basis point move and a 110 basis point move. Here is the arithmetic, why they differ, and which number to quote.
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Ottawa industrial: Q3 absorption fell to 40,000 sf
Oct 17, 2026 · 4 min read
CBRE's Q3 Ottawa industrial absorption fell to 40,000 sf from 156,132 in Q2, and availability rose to 4.2%. Here is the arithmetic, a recheck of my August call, and what I'm watching.
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Ottawa office vacancy: 2024 said under 10%, CBRE says 14.9%
Oct 10, 2026 · 4 min read
A 2024 panel forecast Ottawa office vacancy under 10% by 2026 to 2027. CBRE's Q3 2026 figure is 14.9%. Here is the scoreboard, the arithmetic, and a recheck of my own July call.
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Ottawa industrial rent: $16.71 quoted, about $25 paid
Oct 3, 2026 · 4 min read
CBRE has Ottawa industrial net rent at $16.71 a foot. Five real listings add about $8 of additional rent on top. Here is the monthly math on 4,000 feet, and what to ask first.
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An Ottawa office condo lists at $450 a foot. The fee doesn't.
Sep 26, 2026 · 4 min read
Six Ottawa office and industrial condo units are on the market this week, priced $115 to $525 a foot. None discloses a condo fee. Here is how to find it before you waive conditions.
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The $1M ceiling to buy your Ottawa building is from 2015
Sep 19, 2026 · 5 min read
The federal loan that helps a small business buy its own building caps out at $1,000,000. That number was set in 2015. At Ottawa industrial prices, here is what it no longer reaches.
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Ottawa development charges: $36.03 a foot, due on permit day
Sep 12, 2026 · 5 min read
A new store in Ottawa owes $36.03 a square foot in development charges before the doors open. Industrial pays $15.80. Residential got a deferral and a discount. Commercial got neither.
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Ottawa office rent is $17.17 a foot. You will pay $35.22.
Sep 5, 2026 · 5 min read
Colliers has Ottawa office asking $17.17 net and $35.22 gross. The $18.05 in between is additional rent. It is 51% of the cheque, it resets every January, and almost nobody negotiates it.
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Ottawa still taxes your building on what it was worth in 2016
Aug 29, 2026 · 5 min read
Ottawa's 2026 office tax ratio is 2.39 and industrial is 2.26. Both get applied to values struck on January 1, 2016. Ten years of divergence, one frozen assessment.
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Ottawa's Bay building sold for $65 a foot. Rent is $53.
Aug 22, 2026 · 5 min read
The former Hudson's Bay flagship on Rideau Street sold for $65 a square foot. Downtown Ottawa retail asks $53.22 a foot in annual rent. Those two numbers explain the whole market.
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Ottawa office leases got 23 months longer. That is the deal.
Aug 15, 2026 · 6 min read
Ottawa office vacancy hit 15.0% and everyone called it tenant leverage. The average new lease also went from 38 months to 61. That is the real price.
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Ottawa's new hospital is a 2033 story. Medical space isn't.
Aug 8, 2026 · 5 min read
The new Civic campus completes around 2033-34. Medical construction runs $475 to $650 a foot against $170 to $240 for a strip plaza. Hospital adjacency today buys you eight years of carry.
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Ottawa is building industrial. None of it is for you.
Aug 1, 2026 · 6 min read
Ottawa is the only industrial market in Canada building at more than 3% of inventory. The pipeline is 95.5% pre-leased before it opens. If you need 5,000 square feet, none of that helps you.
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Ottawa office vacancy fell downtown. Here's the catch.
Jul 25, 2026 · 5 min read
Downtown office vacancy dropped more than a full point last quarter. Two buildings leaving the leasing inventory did most of the work. The real news is buried further down the report.
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Ottawa's Commercial Market Is Splitting in Two: Soft Office, Tight Industrial, and Where the Real Deals Are
Jul 18, 2026 · 5 min read
The federal plan to shed half its office space collided with a four-day return-to-office mandate, and Ottawa's commercial market is caught in the whiplash. Office tenants suddenly have leverage. Industrial tenants have the opposite problem.
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Why RTO4 could put a floor under Ottawa's office vacancy
Jul 11, 2026 · 4 min read
For five years the federal government did everything it could to shed office space in Ottawa. Then RTO4 landed on July 6, and the demand math flipped overnight.
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Office-to-residential conversions: can they fix downtown Ottawa?
Jul 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Ottawa is the only Canadian office market still moving the wrong way, and the federal government is about to hand back more space. Conversions are everyone's favourite fix. Here's the actual math.
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Tenant inducements: the hidden math in Ottawa leases
Jun 27, 2026 · 5 min read
The face rent on a commercial lease is the number that tells you the least. In a 14.3% vacancy office market, the inducements are where the real negotiation lives.
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Retail vs office vs industrial: which Ottawa segment is moving
Jun 22, 2026 · 4 min read
If you have capital to deploy into Ottawa commercial real estate in 2026, the segment choice matters more than the property choice. Here's the head-to-head comparison I walk investor clients through.
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Ottawa commercial market overview Q2 2026
Jun 17, 2026 · 3 min read
Ottawa's commercial real estate market in 2026 isn't one market — it's three, moving in three different directions. Office is challenged. Industrial is tight. Retail is rebounding from a long valley.
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