Commercial real estate market worth $63-billion, report says

Commercial real estate generated $63.3-billion in economic activity in Canada last year, making the sector's economic contribution twice as large as the entire economy of the province of Newfoundland & Labrador, according to a new report.

The Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac) and the NAIOP Research Foundation, two groups that represent the commercial real estate industry and advocate on its behalf, asked Altus Group Economic Consulting to prepare the paper, which will be made public Wednesday morning.

It seeks to quantify the contribution that the sector is making to the nation's economy, and it suggests that the sector supports almost 340,000 jobs, roughly equivalent to the total employment from the country's entire agricultural industry.

The total economic activity that the sector generates includes new construction, improvements to existing buildings, brokerage activity and property management, and the spinoffs of that.

The report pegs the sector's contribution to this country's gross domestic product at $32.4-billion, and says that it generated about $18.1-billion in personal income for Canadians last year, and $12.5-billion in profits for businesses.