Dorothy was right. There’s no place like home.

Major Canadian cities fared well in a recent survey of the most expensive places to lease industrial land around the world.

In this report by Royal LePage Commercial Inc., finishing last is a good thing, because the lower down the list, the lower the cost of leasing land – and the cheaper it is to do business.

Calgary came in at a respectable 57th place for 2003, with rent averaging $7.87 Cdn per square foot of prime space. However, the city moved up from 66th place in 2002.

“There’s no question we are very affordable,” said John Crombie, interim manager for Calgary at Royal LePage Commercial Inc.

London, above, and San Francisco, below, may be able to boast about their bridges – but Canada has them beat when it comes to the cost of industrial land.

Calgary has a good supply of land and good construction capability. Other markets, in comparison, might be short on land supply.

Edmonton wasn’t listed in the report, but industrial space goes for about $5.50 a square foot, plus another $1.75 for taxes and operating expenses, said Dean Wulf, vice-president and general manager of Royal LePage in Edmonton. The tenant also usually pays the utilities due to separate metering on industrial buildings. “We have a very attractive market here,” he said.

The report covers 105 industrial centres in 38 countries, including total occupancy costs for 72 of these markets. The four most expensive cities in the world are London, San Francisco, Moscow and Edinburgh. Moscow jumped to third place behind London’s Heathrow Airport area and the San Francisco Peninsula, which retain the No. 1 and 2 positions.

Prime industrial space in Moscow nearly doubled in 2002, and a square foot now costs $21.22 a year, compared with London’s $34.59 and San Francisco’s $26.99. Logistics companies are behind the strong demand. While costs were soaring in the Russian capital, they dropped 3.5 per cent in London.

Back home in Canada, Toronto is in 58th place at $7.87 Cdn a square foot for prime space, down from 55th place last year. Montreal was 60th at $7.57, down from 58th last year. Vancouver arrived in 56th place at $8.03.



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Live in them or work in them, buildings are getting more expensive this year.

Statistics Canada’s new housing price index rose 0.1 per cent from February to March for a 12-month rate of 4.8 per cent. The index tracks contractors’ selling prices.

At the same time, the cost of non-residential building construction was up one per cent in the first quarter of this year from the last quarter of 2002, and 2.7 per cent from the first quarter of 2002.

Statistics Canada said that was the highest year-to-year rise since 3.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2001.

Calgary’s index rose 1.5 per cent from the fourth quarter, followed by Edmonton and Toronto at 1.2 per cent, Ottawa at 1.1 per cent, Vancouver at 0.7 per cent, Montreal at 0.4 per cent and Halifax at 0.2 per cent.

Calgary also had the highest annual change, with construction costs up 3.3 per cent from the first quarter of 2002. Other increases included Toronto at 3.1 per cent, Ottawa at three per cent, Edmonton at 2.8 per cent, Montreal at 2.2 per cent, Halifax at two per cent and Vancouver at 1.2 per cent.

On the housing front, 12 of 21 urban centres surveyed had increases from February to March. Saskatoon led the way at 1.3 per cent, followed by London, Ont., at 1.1 per cent, Hamilton at 0.8 per cent and Winnipeg at 0.8 per cent. Calgary and Victoria both came in at 0.6 per cent.

Montreal had the largest monthly decrease at 0.8 per cent and five centres had no change.