SEATTLE, Wash. — Coming on the heels of robust 2016 transaction performance, the first quarter of 2017 registered as the highest Q1 volume in Canadian history with nearly $1.6 billion in closed volume, according to Colliers International’s Hotel INNvestment Canada Report Q1 2017.
The bulk of this activity was driven by the sale of bcIMC’s hospitality real-estate portfolio of 25 hotels, which accounted for approximately 70 per cent of the Q1 volume. Excluding the bcIMC/Silverbirch sale, which was a strategic transaction, the quarter’s traditional volume totalled nearly $500 million, pacing 48 per cent above Q1 2016. The majority of this investment activity was focused in Ontario, with 12 transactions totalling nearly $400 million in sales (80 per cent of traditional volume), followed by Quebec and British Columbia, which each accounted for approximately seven per cent of traditional transaction volume ($32.4 million and $32.2 million respectively).
This trend of healthy trading activity is expected to continue through the rest of 2017, with several transactions closed in Q2 and a number of deals in the pipeline, both in the market and under contract.
The report also highlighted the explosive growth of home-sharing platforms, pointing to the fact that Airbnb’s monthly active users have doubled from Q1 2014 to Q1 2016. It also details the state of home-sharing regulations in cities/regions across Canada. In general, legislation for short-term rentals is much more developed in the United States than Canada at this time, but over the course of 2017 and 2018 more markets in Canada are expected to look at the question of regulating short-term rental activity.
The complete report is available here.
