After a down year that saw no “investment-grade” properties change hands in 2025, the Ottawa office sales market is beginning to rebound, Colliers executive vice-president OIiver Tighe told an audience of commercial real estate brokers and other industry insiders Wednesday morning.
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The recent sales of two downtown office towers could be a harbinger of things to come as the gulf between what buyers are willing to pay and what sellers are asking for their buildings starts shrinking, a leading Ottawa real estate executive says.
After a down year that saw no “investment-grade” properties change hands in 2025, the Ottawa office sales market is beginning to rebound, Colliers executive vice-president OIiver Tighe told an audience of commercial real estate brokers and other industry insiders Wednesday morning.
“That’s a direct function of the gap between buyers and sellers,” Tighe said during Colliers’ 2025 year in review breakfast at Time Square in the ByWard Market.
“I think we’re seeing buyers and sellers starting to come closer together.”
A pair of marquee downtown office properties were sold in February, meaning there have already been more major deals in the Ottawa market than all of last year.
First, Morguard announced it has agreed to sell a 14-storey tower at 131 Queen St. to Public Services and Procurement Canada for $148 million in a deal that’s expected to close in August.
Then last week, Regional Group closed a deal to purchase Export Development Canada’s headquarters at 150 Slater St. from Manulife Investment Management.
The Ottawa-based real estate firm paid $300 a square foot – or about $143 million – for the 18-storey highrise, well below the $485 per square foot that PSPC is paying for 131 Queen St.
Tighe praised Ottawa-based Regional Group for acquiring the class-A tower at the corner of Slater and O’Connor streets, which opened in 2011 and is fully leased. EDC occupies 98 per cent of the property on a long-term lease that expires in 2031.
“I think it’s a good asset,” he said, adding there are a number of other major office buildings that are currently in the conditional sale stage in Ottawa.
“I do believe we’ll see some trades in 2026,” Tighe said.
Colliers’ valuation expert also noted there were no major transactions in the multi-family asset class last year either, again citing divergent expectations between buyers and sellers as rents have levelled off amid a slowdown in immigration and the addition of thousands of new apartment units to the Ottawa market in the past few years.
Most sellers are still “locked in” to 2023-level cap rates that were in the low-four or sub-four per cent range, Tighe explained.
“I think the reality is today, cap rates are more like four and a half per cent,” he added. “Buyers aren’t as confident that they can grow rents over the next five years. That’s really the challenge in the investment market for multi-family.”
Still, Tighe said he expects some new developments to change hands this year because the companies that launched them won’t be able to secure the financing they need to complete them.
“I think we'll see some transactions in that space,” he said. “There’s a lot of product that needs to be absorbed, and it’s being absorbed very slowly.”
