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Edmonton retail rents are bucking the national trend by holding steady in some key categories while retail rents are rising across the country.

In the latest CBRE retail rent survey released Wednesday, the commercial real estate group analyzed retail rents across Canada for the first half of the year.

The analysis found an overall increase in rents – particularly in Ottawa and Toronto – due to low supply and a lack of new construction due to construction costs, with the Edmonton market showing less movement.

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Matthew Hanson, CBRE’s Edmonton sales representative, noted that Edmonton’s growing reputation as an affordable place to live has attracted the attention not only of new residents, but also of investors outside Alberta looking to capitalize on the growing population.

“There are going to be so many more people opening stores and spending money there, so if we can attract more people, I think that will help retail itself continue to thrive,” Hanson said.

CBRE analyzed net asking rent for a variety of different retail space types, including: regional malls ($110-130 per square foot), power centers ($22-28/square foot), community-based ($40-55/square foot), non-community-based ($38-46/square foot), residential ($38-45/square foot), convenience store/strip mall ($33-42/square foot), mixed-use urban areas ($33-42/square foot), and mixed-use suburban areas ($25-32/square foot).

In five of the eight categories listed, the Edmonton market was unchanged in the first half of the year. The three exceptions were increases in net rent for non-gated communities, residential neighborhoods and malls/strips.

Hanson said the best retail space in Edmonton is often in suburbs.

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“Edmonton is still a car-centric city. We’re a winter city. People rely on their vehicles in many ways. So suburbs with grocery stores as anchors are still some of our highest-volume and most sought-after retail,” Hanson said.

When national investors start looking at different retail spaces across the city, the southwest is often one of the focal points they want to see because of the rapidly increasing population in that area, he said.

The CBRE survey also highlighted the impact of the Edmonton Oilers’ recent playoff appearance, which brought in $280 million for the city. Hanson said this is good for the downtown core and could, in the long term, help lower retail rents in the area, which have suffered in recent years.

“It’s starting to change the history, the narrative of downtown, and that’s what we hope will continue to happen,” Hanson said.

“It has gotten better and I think it will continue to get better.”

While suburban markets continue to thrive, Hanson said the necessary changes already underway downtown will not happen overnight.

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“I think people need to go out and look at the situation because everyone hears bad stories and it sticks with you. But I think if you were there a year or two ago, most people would agree that things are getting better,” he said.

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