‘Stabilization happening’: downtown Winnipeg office vacancy rate dips

Nearly four years after the final COVID-19 public health orders were lifted, there are still workers returning to office spaces in downtown Winnipeg and vacancy rates are slowly dropping.

Data collected by national real estate firm Colliers found downtown had a vacancy rate of 15.3 per cent by the end of 2025, a drop from 16.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024. City-wide, office vacancy rates are at 13 per cent.

The gradual improvement shows workplaces are still hammering out in-office policies and many put new ones into practice over the last year, said Sean Kliewer, senior vice-president with Colliers in Winnipeg.

“We see this stabilization happening again, where we’re back to that sort of norm, and we’re getting into a new norm,” he said Thursday.

Winnipeg is almost exactly in line with the Canada-wide average downtown vacancy rate of 15.5 per cent. Most Prairie cities surveyed have a higher number of vacant offices: Edmonton was at 19.1 per cent, Calgary at 27.2 per cent, and Saskatoon at a 19.4 per cent vacancy rate.

Unlike cities like Calgary and Toronto, that are often faced with sudden upswings or downturns based on demand, Winnipeg’s downtown has historically been built slowly by mainstay corporations in the Manitoba capital, said Kliewer.

“It’s the Canada Lifes, it’s the Investors Groups, it’s the long-standing Winnipeg companies that are growing over time and taking up more space that primarily drives our growth, versus new occupants starting businesses and opening up shop in Winnipeg,” he said.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will not order those in the public service back into the office full time, despite some other provinces bringing in mandated full-time office work for public servants, a provincial spokesperson confirmed Thursday.

He cited a need for work-life balance for staff. Public servants are currently expected in-office three days per week.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, who said last year city staff would be expected to return to five days of in-office work a week, said it was up to each level of government to “make their own decision.”

“I’m a firm believer that people work best when in an office,” he said at an unrelated event Thursday. “I know some people don’t see it that way.”

Gillingham said city CAO Joe Dunford is still working with staff to facilitate returns to office and it “continues to be a priority.”

While the private sector has “answered the bell” and facilitated much of the return to work effort downtown, the public sector has not made the same effort, said Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Loren Remillard.

“From an employer perspective, they have the right to determine place of work, but, that said, they’re also the government of Manitoba and therein lies a greater responsibility beyond that of a traditional employer,” he said.

“A lot is asked of the private sector by government, to make investments in this province, to support downtown development, even in spite of some of the challenges and the obstacles that are continually faced by businesses. I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the community who’s leading the charge … invite our own government to maybe join us in that journey.”

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca