VANCOUVER, April 28, 2008 - In its new Real Estate Market Study published today, GVA Devencore announced that the space absorption that took place in downtown Vancouver’s Class “A” and Class “B” buildings in 2007 brought the combined occupancy rate up to 97.9%--the highest to be found anywhere in the country’s major cities. Since the end of 2004, over 2.7 million square feet of office space in the downtown area has been absorbed.

“With one new development on the drawing board, tenants will find it a considerable challenge to find suitable office space in the city core,” said Jon Bishop, Vice-President of Devencore Company Limited. “The city’s own jobs-and-land-use plan maintains that the downtown area will require about 65 million square feet of space to meet the needs of job growth over the next two decades, but current zoning regulations make that goal impossible. Good quality office buildings are commanding record high rates in the $40 per square foot range with some prestige spaces reaching the $50 per square foot milestone this year. Furthermore, for many blocks of space, multiple offer scenarios are playing out creating risk for tenants seeking to relocate their office premises.”

In the Class “A” sector, the vacancy rate dropped from 2.3% to 1.7% over the course of 2007, despite the fact that the 238,000 square-foot Bentall V expansion came online in the fourth quarter. Today, only 266,000 square feet is available for lease or sublet. In the Class “B” market the vacancy rate declined from 4.6% to 3.0%. Just over 240,000 square feet is currently available.

Nationally, office vacancy rates also continued to drop and are now as low as they have been since GVA Devencore began tracking the statistics. In the downtown districts of Canada’s major cities, there is a total inventory of approximately 194.8 million square feet of Class “A” and Class “B” office space. At the end of 2007, only 3.8% remained available for lease or sublet. By way of comparison, at the end of 2004 the Canada-wide vacancy rate stood at 9.1%. Over the past three years, nearly 17.2 million square feet have been absorbed.

“Tenants who have been looking for space downtown might also want to revise their expectations and consider their options in the Burnaby and Richmond areas, where there is more supply and where costs are more moderate, Bishop said. “Even in these markets, however, tenants should get as complete a view of the opportunities as possible, as the competition for office space is likely to intensify over the next few years.”

About GVA Devencore

GVA Devencore is Canada’s largest corporate real estate advisor and broker. It offers services exclusively to corporate, industrial and retail space users. GVA Devencore offers comprehensive professional services and an outstanding range of management tools designed to help executives with decisions on their building inventory. GVA Devencore is a private company servicing the Canadian market through its coast-to-coast offices. The company is a founding partner and the exclusive Canadian representative of the prestigious GVA Worldwide Ltd., allowing it to optimize services provided to clients throughout the world. For further information, go to www.gvadevencore.com.