Saskatoon, with a population estimated by the City to be 208,300, is centrally located in the developed southern half of the province of Saskatchewan and is the largest city in the province. According to SREDA, the Census Metro Area population is around 237,000. Saskatoon serves as the distribution centre for the northern half of the province. Saskatoon has been able to attract significant economic diversification to temper the effects of difficulties in the agricultural sector. A good portion of the economic development has been science related and an inter-related medical cluster is forming around the university. Canada's only synchrotron, the Canadian Light Source (CLS) became operational in July. In Nov. 2006 a third phase was announced that will bring the number of beamlines to 19. Saskatoon, through the University of Saskatchewan and Innovation Place, has also become a leader in agricultural biotechnology, which ties in to the provincial agriculture base. Saskatoon has over 35 ag-biotech businesses that include biomedical (nutraceuticals and supplements), bioenergy (ethanol and biodeisel) and bioindustrial (fibre utilization).

The Standard & Poors municipal bond rating service acknowledges the City of Saskatoon's strong financial position by giving City debentures the AAA (highest possible) rating since 1989. Saskatoon continues as one of the soundest cities covered by them. Debt levels are consistently low, while reserve levels are high. In fact, the City's reserve levels usually exceed the gross debt outstanding.

The overall real estate market outlook has become exceptionally buoyant. An indicator of the real estate market activity is the Multiple Listing Service of the Saskatoon and District Association of Realtors. There was a record high $693-million in transactions reported in 2006. In 2007, there was a 97% increase above last year's record high with $1.367-billion in sales reported.

Strong manufacturing, construction, and mining sectors of the economy plus an influx of speculative out of province buyers have spurred large price increases particularly in residential, industrial and multi-family real estate markets.

The resale housing market continues to see strong increases in average sale price, according to MLS statistics. The average residential sale price for the year 2005 was $144,786 and the year 2006 was $160,577 on the sale of 3,430 houses. In 2007 this climbed to $232,754, up 45% over the past year and there were 4,446 house sales reported.

This June, the average house sale price for the month increased to a record high of $310,386. The average sales price per house over the past 6 months is reported to be $289,165.

These figures are the average sale price of all of the houses reported sold through MLS in the city. There were a further 780 houses sold in the rural areas over 2006 with an average of $146,573 and 1,050 reported sold in 2007 with an average of $182,314. The year to date in 2008 is 1,295 with an average of $226,525.

Readers of this overview are welcome to use the information as deemed appropriate, providing Brunsdon Junor Johnson Appraisals Ltd is quoted as the reference source. The information contained herein is believed but not warranted to be accurate. Readers are cautioned to make their own investigation before making any financial decisions.

1. Tourism
Tourism is significant to the local economy with several events in 2007 involving over 3,000 visitors. August 2007 saw the opening of the 84,000 sq.ft. Dakota Dunes Casino about 27 km south of Saskatoon and that is expected to draw some 2 million visitors a year. It has free shuttle services from various malls in the city.

Saskatoon hosts a number of annual festivals and events. The downtown area, in particular, the river bank parks feature multi-day events such as the Taste of Saskatchewan, the SaskTel Jazz Festival which brings in hundreds of international artists for 10 days, and the International Children's Festival attracts children from throughout the province. The Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival presents live theatre nightly in July and August. The Cruise Weekend is a three day downtown event that attracts around 50,000 people.

The Canada Remembers Airshow at the airport is a two day event attracting 34,000. The Fringe Festival featuring international alternative theatre is hosted in the Broadway area and Folkfest, a three day multi-cultural festival which has been rated as one of the top 100 events in North America, has venues that are located throughout the city. The Wanuskewin Heritage Park, located along the river just north of the city, and the Western Development Museum at the southern edge of the city have also added significantly to the tourism sector of Saskatoon.

2. Agriculture
The local agricultural economy is directly affected by activity in world commodity markets. According to reports, Saskatchewan once produced half of the entire quantity of Canada's major export cereal crops: wheat, oats, barley, rye, flaxseed and canola. In response to changing world markets, Saskatchewan farmers have shifted dramatically from growing mostly cereals to growing specialty crops and raising animals. Saskatchewan now produces more than 90 per cent of Canada's lentils and chickpeas, and 70 per cent of its peas and is now the world's leading producer of lentils, mustard and canary seed.

Along with this has been growth in the number of businesses handling, cleaning and processing these crops, which are largely destined for export markets. Test cropping has also been reported successful on a number of spices and herbs, as well as large-scale green house operations.

Saskatoon is central to the farm sector market. According to provincial crop reports, the 2008 crop is now planted in 98% of the province.

New Holland Saskatoon , the world's largest manufacturer of tractors and combines consolidated their air-seeder manufacturing operations to Saskatoon and employ some 900 people. The 630,000 sq.ft. plant has since become the centre of all tillage and planter production for both New Holland and CaseIH brands and they phased in production of combine headers as well. In October 2006 they added another line of tillage products and expanded their plant.

The loss of the railroad grain transportation subsidy (Crow Rate) in 1995 has encouraged more diversified value added food production, shipping a finished processed product instead of the raw materials and the manufacturing jobs that go with them.

Mitchell's Gourmet Foods / Maple Leaf Foods just opened a new distribution centre on the north side of the city in April 2008. They are one of Canada's largest value-added processor of pork products and they built a large production and processing facility in 2001 on the southern side of the city.

There is expected to be significant expenditure in rural large-scale hog operations as the technologies improve to alleviate air, ground and water contamination from animal waste. Reportedly, final testing is now underway to convert the raw manure to biogas that is used to produce heat and electricity plus organic fertilizer concentrates.

Centennial Food Corp opened a food processing plant in 2002 designed to package frozen meat, vegetables, and seafood. Adjacent to this plant in 2003, Westco Storage Ltd of Winnipeg built a multi-temperature distribution facility on 60th Street. The 87,000 square foot building is hoped to form the nucleus of a new food processing park in Saskatoon and this building could be expanded to 240,000 sq.ft. as needed.

A chicken processing plant was built by Prairie Pride Natural Foods Ltd with the first 115,000 sq.ft. phase beginning production in January 2006. This is immediately north of Centennial Foods.

In August 2007 the Cargill canola crushing plant in Clavet located 16 km southeast of Saskatoon, announced that rather than do a planned expansion to their crushing plant, they are building an entire new crushing plant next to it, doubling their production.  View more info (pdf) »

3. Resource Development
Mining has a major influence on the provincial and local economy. The Saskatoon region is the world's largest exporter of uranium, and nearly two-thirds of the world's recoverable potash reserves are located in the Saskatoon region. According to the Sask. Bureau of Stats, provincial mineral production included crude oil, natural gas, potash, uranium, gold, coal and salt.

Saskatoon is the head office for the Potash Corporation, the world's largest integrated fertilizer producer of the three primary nutrients and they have production facilities in five countries. There are 6 potash mines in proximity to Saskatoon. A new mine south of Humboldt is being explored by Athabasca Potash Inc.View more info (pdf) »

In April 2005 a new provincial tax incentive was announced that led to immediate large expansion by all three of the potash mining corporations in the province.  View more info (pdf) »

In June 2006 it was announced that Anglo Minerals Ltd. from Calgary has entered into a joint venture agreement with BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc., and a 66 month feasibility study would be started to investigate opening a new potash mine in the vicinity of the Lanigan mine.  View more info (pdf) »

Saskatoon is also the head office of Cameco Corporation, the world's largest uranium mining company that produces one-third of world production. They have the two largest and highest grade uranium deposits in the world and in December 2004 started construction of a $450-million mine at Cigar Lake. This mine has been experiencing some flooding problems which they say will delay the production start. French government owned Areva Resources Canada Inc is based in Saskatoon and is a partner in these two mines.

Gold and diamond activity in northern Saskatchewan is also adding to Saskatoon's stature as a mining supply centre. Claude Resources, with its head office in Saskatoon, is the largest gold producer in the province. In 2003 they spent $2-million to extend the vertical mine shaft at Seabee to prolong the lifespan of the mine and in December 2004 they announced spending $2-million to double their mill production to be able to take advantage of two nearby deposits at Porky Lake and Santoy Lake.

In the diamond sector, the Fort a la Corne field, 65 km east of Prince Albert is one of the worlds largest known diamond bearing kimberlite deposits with over 70 pipes now identified and the kimberlite field is estimated to contain over 9 billion tonnes.

The Saskatoon based Shore Gold joint venture with Newmont Gold of Denver announced in November 2007 that they now have extracted 10,000 carats of diamonds worth $1 million during their exploration process. They are in the process of sinking a second shaft in order to do more lateral bulk sampling. They have announced that the budget for this year will be $87-million on this site.

According to the CEO of Shore Gold, the Star Diamond project contains 16.7 million carats of diamonds worth $3.8 billion and they could be producing gem quality stones as soon as 2011.

Other drilling exploration is being done in the area by Forest Gate Resources, who have reported diamond recovery from their test drilling, and Saskatoon based Great Western Diamonds Corp is also doing test drilling in the area near Candle Lake. In February 2007 they announced that they have signed an exploration agreement with Montreal Lake Cree Nation on a portion of their traditional lands. Diamondex Resources Ltd. is test drilling around 30km from Saskatoon.

4. Education & Technology
Several large educational institutions are located in Saskatoon, the largest being the University of Saskatchewan and the associated Royal University Hospital. This campus accommodates over 19,000 students and is a major employer in Saskatoon. The SIAST Kelsey Campus, a technical secondary school, accommodates approximately 17,000 students annually. The Saskatoon Public School Division has 53 schools and a student population of 20,000. In September 2006 they opened a new high school in University Heights and in 2007 they built a new high school in the new Blairmore subdivision. The Saskatoon Catholic Board of Education has 14,000 students in 41 schools and also have opened a new high school in Blairmore in 2007.

Innovation Place, the research park on the University campus, is serving as a strong catalyst to the growth of an increasing high technology sector, not only in ag-biotechnology but also medical research and fibre optics. Innovation Place's role is to supply facilities, on a commercial basis, to support the research and development community in Saskatchewan. According to a 2007 Insightrix study, Innovation Place contributed $195 million to the economy of Saskatoon and $259 million to Saskatchewan's economy in 2006. There are more than 2,300 people employed by 144 organizations in 18 buildings. A new 5 storey, 151,000 sq.ft. office building was occupied in 2007. The CLS synchrotron is located on the university campus, adjacent to Innovation Place.

The Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) has taken a very active global approach towards encouraging technology and industrial companies to consider Saskatoon as a location. The Greater Saskatoon Chamber Of Commerce also provides support services for local businesses.

5. Construction

The City building permit total in 2007 increased by 70% over 2006 to $547.4 million. Of this, 23% ($125.6 million) was for single and 18% ($98.6 million) was for multiple housing. Commercial was 15% ($80.9 million) and industrial at 12% ($63.4 million). The institutional and assembly category was 15% at $82 million and the Other totalled $96.6 million or 18%.

The public development sector highest priority civic project is the redevelopment of the South Downtown and City-owned river front sites known as River Landing. The City is developing the river edge with an elaborate walkway and park complex. In December 2007 Persephone Theatre occupied their new $11-million theatre on a portion of this land. After a second call expressions of interest to develop the balance of the site, a proposal of a 3 building urban village was received from Lake Placid Developments from Calgary including an eight-storey boutique hotel/restaurant, four-storey office/retail building and 20-storey condo tower. They have purchased additional land from Remai Ventures and have now applied to increase the hotel height to 12 stories to allow 170 rooms. This would enable them to attract a top level hotel chain. View more info (PDF) »

Some $30-million of public funding is being spent on the western side remediating the site and putting in parks, services, an outdoor village square, and sports fields. The large Farmers Market building and outdoor lot is now open as the first stage of this and a 67 suite condo development called Rivergreen Ecovillage is in the planning stages and reportedly pre-sold out.

The City completed a 47,000 sq.ft. expansion to the downtown Centennial Auditorium in Sept. 2006. Also in the downtown at the same time, construction was completed on a 12-screen Galaxy Cinema.

There have been a large number of construction projects on the University of Sask. campus in addition to the synchrotron. The Kinesiology building opened in 2003. Other work recently completed includes the Structural Sciences addition at $26-million, the VIDO addition at $14-million, chemical engineering extension at $10-million plus several other additions. The $10-million 4-level parkade opened at the end of 2004 and a $20-million renovation to the College Building was completed in 2005. A $110-million International Vaccine Centre (INTERVAC) was given the green light to start in 2007 which will add 160,000 sq.ft. onto the VIDO building and the Vet-Med College has started a $57-million addition to be completed by March 2008. In addition, a $250-million Academic Health Sciences Centre, a new ice arena, and a new student housing complex are in the planning stages and Griffiths Stadium got an $8-million upgrade in 2006.

There continues to be strong activity in commercial construction.

A new mall, Stonegate Centre is located on the southern edge of the city at Clarence Avenue and Circle Drive. It is slated to have 430,000 sq.ft. A 156,000 sq.ft. Wal-Mart opened in January 2007 plus a Home Depot opened in November. It also has a Mark's Work Wearhouse and several stores not yet represented in Saskatoon, such as Golftown and Sleep Country Canada, a big-box mattress store. Adjacent to this will be the large Stonebridge Business Park with 41 building lots to accommodate a mixture of commercial developments including a 4 storey hotel now under construction. A new 57,000 sq.ft. strip mall called Stonebridge Village is on the other side of Clarence Avenue.

Other commercial malls coming on stream will be Blairmore on the western edge of the city with 31 acres and 315,000 potential sq.ft. of retail. This site is reported by the StarPhoenix to have been purchased by a Wal-Mart subsidiary. The City still has a fully serviced 23 acre lot in University Heights. The decision has not been made yet when it will be tendered.

Preston Crossing opened the 292,000 sq.ft. Phase 1 in 2002. This includes a 110,000 square foot Canadian Tire anchor store plus 9 other stores ranging from 10,500 square feet upwards. Phase 2, including a 132,000 sq.ft. Wal-Mart opened in 2005 plus an Old Navy and a PetsMart. The whole project has been purchased by Harvard Developments Inc and they received approval from City Council to proceed with the 113,000 sq.ft. Phase 3 in December 2007.

The Saskatoon Co-op opened a new 45,000 sq.ft. grocery store in the University Heights area in 2002 plus a gas bar and strip mall. Since then this area has seen construction of a variety of professional, retail and restaurant buildings including a liquor store.

Jubilee Ford and Sherwood Chev relocated in 2001 into several new dealership buildings in the Saskatoon Auto Mall at the southern edge of the city creating some $30-million in new construction.

Varsity Common opened in 2002 on the Jubilee site with a Garden Market IGA, a Montana's restaurant, a Tim Horton's and a 19,000 sq.ft. strip mall. The Sherwood site on 8th Street saw London Drugs open in 2002 and Winners and Staples opened in 2003. An East Side Mario's restaurant opened in 2004 and a new 4 bay, fast food building was added.

The City of Saskatoon and The Partnership have developed tax and heritage incentive programs that are designed to increase the amount of downtown housing. Several projects are now under way to convert large older warehouse structures into office and housing complexes. The Rumely building is presently being converted into upscale condos and the former King George Hotel is undergoing a conversion into main floor retail and the balance condos. The former Bay building conversion is still under way and another floor has been added to the building.

Industrial construction has received a boost from spin-off from the multi-billion dollar Athabasca Oil Sands project and the expansion of potash mines. Most significant new construction activity was in design built, office/warehouse/shop space in the northern end of the city.

In the housing sector, CMHC reports that housing starts for 2007 were more that 60% higher than last year in the city and over double in the surrounding areas.

The whole CMA, including the surrounding communities is up 110% over last year in starts suggesting strong activity in the outlying communities. Construction is underway on MacCormack Ranch, a 40 acre 143 housing subdivision in Martensville where all of the lots have now been sold. It will include medium-priced housing and some higher end residences that will back onto an artificial lake. Several of these communities are in the process of annexing land and planning for more residential lots as they have sold out all existing serviced lots.

6. Commercial & Investment

The province wide retail sales figures moderated through 1998 and 1999 and have been rising since. Total retail sales for 2007, according to Sask Bureau of Statistics are up 11% to $12.98 billion.

In 2007 we documented sales of $83.1-million of retail and office space with a total of 804,327 sq.ft. These are arms-length sales that we are aware of, and may not include all of the sales in the city.

In 2007 we documented sales of 82 apartment blocks totalling 1,862 suites. Capitalization rates generally ranged in the 5% to 7% bracket. A large portion of these will likely be converted into condominiums and re-sold as individual suites. There are some 25 more that are reported sold but not yet closed, and not likely to close due to the amount of equity required.

7. Apartment Rental Market
Information from the April 2008 CMHC Rental Market Report, indicates that the city-wide vacancy in Saskatoon suites declined to 0.9% in April 2008, down from 3.0% in April 2007. This is slightly higher than the 0.6% found in October. The city-wide average rent for a one bedroom increased by $92/month over last year to $608 per month, for two bedroom it went up $133 to $759 and for three bedroom it went up $152 to $808. This is the largest increase on record.

The overall number of rental units in the city was reduced from 13,474 in October 2007 to 13,192 and this number will continue to decline. They found 113 vacant suites in April 2008. This survey is a snapshot of the number of vacant suites at a specific date and does not represent an annual amount of vacancy.

The west side apartment vacancies dropped significantly from October 2006 to 2007, particularly Zone 6 from 12.9% down to 2.1%. The city-wide average rent increased by $114/month in the past 6 months to $689 per month.

The current apartment vacancy information is summarized on the following table:

8. Retail Rental Market
Vacancy information is supplied by ICR Commercial Real Estate Services. They show that the overall city-wide vacancy in the past 6 years has ranged from a high of 4.6% in 2000 to new low of 2.1% in 2007. The report shows the following vacancy levels:

9. Office Rental Market
The Saskatoon office market is stronger now than it has been in decades. Vacancies are down, rental rates are conservatively increasing, and tenant inducement packages are becoming a thing of the past.

The 2007 to 2008 vacancy survey is now available. These are the vacancy numbers that it shows.


With strong demand and limited supply, property values are increasing and capitalization rates are decreasing; a trend ongoing across the country.

Given the limited amount of new construction being added to this mix, rental rates are forecasted to continue to strengthen through 2008 with vacancies continuing to decrease.

View the complete Saskatoon Office 2007-2008 Study (PDF) »

10. Industrial
The City of Saskatoon passed a development plan in 1998 to make industrial areas more focussed with respect to the type of enterprises that may locate in each area and enhance the compatibility of future developments. A new industrial park is in the long range plan that will be an Environmental Industrial Park. It is to be located north of Agriplace on the western side of Highway #11. The intention is to accommodate higher risk operations within a concentrated area with higher levels of protection to the public and to the environment. Shorter range plans are to continue the development and sale of lots primarily in the Marquis Industrial area.

The City 2007 Industrial Land Inventory indicates the total amount of industrial land in the city is some 4,594 acres, of which 920 acres are unserviced and largely undeveloped and are primarily in the Marquis area.

Of the 3,027 acres of serviced industrial land, most is at the north end of the city, with 73% of the total serviced land inventory in the North and North West areas. The North Industrial (south of 51st Street), Hudson Bay Industrial (51st Street to 60th Street) and Marquis Industrial (60th to 71st Streets plus the former Silverwood Industrial) have 61% of the city total. Agriplace and the Airport Business Centre in the north west account for 12% of the city total.

Secondary developed industrial locations include: the South West and West Industrial areas in the neighbourhood of 11th Street West; the CN Industrial location off Circle Drive in the south; the Sutherland Industrial Park to the east; and the inner-city Central and Kelsey Industrial areas.

Industrial land prices have climbed significantly in some areas over the past few years. Land on the outskirts of the City without full servicing also saw strong activity over 2007. Prices in the proposed BizHub Industrial Park at the northern edge the city are $175,000 to $300,000/acre and are now pre-selling.

The City of Saskatoon is the now the only developer of industrial land inside the city. In March 2008, they tendered 7 lots zoned IL1 on Millar Avenue priced at $260,000 to $280,000/acre and 12 lots zoned IH on Millar Avenue priced at $270,000 to $290,000/acre. All but 5 were sold by the tender at 4% to 13% above reserve price or $261,000 to $327,000 per acre. The balance were sold as soon as the were offered over the counter. They currently have 16 lots zoned IL3 for sale over the counter on Wheeler Street with prices of $260,000 to $285,000/acre.

In Agriplace some of the vacant land is now re-selling in the $160,000 to $240,000/acre range.

The sales summary below shows activity levels in the North area which includes only North, Hudson Bay, and Marquis. The Other includes all of the other areas. The bulk sale of the 42 lots by the CIC Industrial Interests to the City at $58,500/acre in 2006 are not included.

These are sales where the title has transferred and many of these were optioned a year ago. There are a large number more that have now been optioned but the sale has not closed yet. The Other category are sales zoned industrial with a commercial influence.

The city-wide vacancy rate, as suggested by real estate agents specializing in the rental building segment of the marketplace, remained at 2% at the end of 2007. According to the Colliers McClocklin Industrial Market Report, the Industrial market is made up of about 17 million square feet.

Year to date in 2008 there have seen 17 sales documented. The cap. rates were in the 6.5% to 8.5% range and the average sale price was $96/sq.ft.