BURST
Angela Robert doesn’t miss her former Vancouver office.
A few years ago, the CEO of mobile technology firm Conquer Experience moved the company out of its Fairview location and into two buildings at Surrey’s City Centre. She says she hasn’t looked back.
The rent is cheaper, and the company’s new office at 9850 King George Blvd. is right next to the SkyTrain, which makes commuting easier for staff coming from the Fraser Valley and nearby suburbs.
“It’s also close to shops like grocery stores and Starbucks, making it easy to grab a coffee or pick up a few things on my way home,” Robert told Postmedia.
Her company is part of a broader trend: More Vancouver businesses are moving to suburbs, including Burnaby, the Tri-Cities, Langley, New Westminster, the North Shore, Richmond and Surrey.
Vancouver’s downtown office market has approximately 33 million square feet, while space in the suburbs is roughly 29 million square feet.
According to real estate firm CBRE, the suburban market had rising vacancy rates for two years because of nearly 800,000 square feet of new office space added in 2024. But in the first quarter of 2025, the market finally steadied, since no new space was added.
Meanwhile, downtown office vacancy fell to 10.7 per cent, marking the first time since mid-2021 that it was lower than the suburban office vacancy rate, which was 10.8 per cent.
Luke Moran, vice-president of leasing at Peterson Real Estate, says suburban office hubs have remained attractive as some companies reconsider more centrally located office spaces downtown.
“The average net lease rate in Richmond is about $20 per square foot, nearly half the cost of downtown Vancouver,” Moran explained, noting that cost is a major factor.
“During the pandemic, many companies closed or downsized downtown offices, subleasing space at discounted rates. As those subleases end and downtown rents rise, tenants are choosing more affordable suburban locations.”
Moran added that project-based companies, such as engineering firms, are downsizing or reconfiguring their office leases to better suit hybrid work models supported by onsite amenities.
“They need to focus on controlling overhead because their cash flows can be inconsistent as they scale up and down based on the number of projects.”
Peterson Real Estate, which owns and manages several mixed-use properties in Metro Vancouver, is putting money into modern suburban hubs such as Richmond — places it sees as key to the region’s next wave of commercial growth.
According to Moran, today’s suburban office campuses offer amenities that many downtown towers don’t — free parking, bike storage, childcare, cafés, green space, and wellness features such as gyms.
“Office space has become a recruitment tool, so tenants, developers and landlords are always looking to increase their amenity offerings,” said Moran.
He pointed to Richmond’s Crestwood Corporate Centre, a business park at 13575 Commerce Parkway, which just added a dog park for employees’ pets and has food trucks on the site.
With more of the workforce now living outside the city core, these suburban locations offer not only affordability but also a better fit for how people live and work today.
Some of the region’s largest employers have already made the move. In 2016, Coast Capital Savings moved its headquarters to King George Hub in Surrey’s Whalley neighbourhood, occupying most of a nine-storey building on King George Blvd. A few years later, Westland Insurance followed, moving into seven floors of another building within the same mixed-use development.
Suburban hubs such as Burnaby have seen similar momentum. Last spring, Scott Construction Group moved its headquarters from Vancouver to a larger office in Burnaby’s Canada Way Business Park, with plans to continue expanding.