Photo by Dwayne
Investment in non-residential real estate contracted by more than 10 per cent in 2010, reports Statistics Canada. Investors spent $3.9 billion on non-residential housing investment in Calgary’s metropolitan area, compared to $4.3 billion the previous year.
Both the industrial and commercial sectors recorded large drops in 2010, and only the institutional sector was able to partly counterbalance the loss, when it rose by 35.6 per cent to $1.7 billion last year from $1.3 billion in 2009.
The whole province of Alberta reports similar numbers, with non-residential construction declining by 8.8 per cent. Investments dropped to $9 billion from almost $10 billion in 2009. Similarly, the institutional sector was the only one to grow.
The current market is anticipated to erase last year’s loss very quickly. Thanks mainly to a rebound in the energy sector, where more than 20 new oilsands drilling projects are predicted for the next five years, non-residential construction investment is forecast to grow by 21 per cent in 2011, and then average 12.9 per cent from 2012-15, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
