Altus Group: Commercial Real Estate Transactions Pick Up

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Altus Group, Toronto, found aggregate commercial real estate transaction volume reached $150.6 billion in Q3, up 23.7% from Q2.

That’s also up 25.1% from Q3 2024. Some sectors outpaced those spending gains, with industrial up 26.5%, office up 28%, general commercial up 48.9% and multifamily up 51.1%.

For the first three quarters of the year, the cumulative dollar volume of single-property transactions was $265 billion, historically low but above the same periods in 2023 and 2024.

In Q3, 45,893 properties transacted, up 12.6% from Q2 and 6.8% year-over-year.

Through the first three quarters of the year, there were just over 93,000 properties transacted.

The median price per square foot for single-property transactions increased 2.9% from Q2. However, two sectors–office at 4.3% and multifamily at 3.5%–outpaced that figure.

Median pricing rose 14.2% year-over-year across all property sectors. The largest gains were in multifamily, up by 17.3%; office, up by 14.8%; and general commercial, up by 13.8%.

Thirteen of the 15 subsectors saw increases in median price per square foot on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Storage saw the largest jump, up 7.6%, followed by full-service hotels, up 5.2%, and automotive, up 5%.

The only two subsectors to post declines were bars, down 2.4%, and big-box stores, down 2.8%.

On an annual basis, all subsectors saw price improvements, with automotive, up by 19.4%, and other industrial, up by 18.1%, leading the way.