Joel Dyck, a REALTOR® with Real Broker SK Ltd. in Saskatoon, sees the underlying incentive clearly: an empty office building earns no income at all, so converting it to residential use, even at real cost, can beat leaving it vacant and paying property tax on it regardless.
For a landlord, the calculation is about occupied space versus none, not about a preference for residential use, and that math changes with vacancy rates and construction costs, not with any single announcement about one building.
Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.