Metro Vancouver Real Estate Market Reports

Vancouver Office Market Report

Metro Vancouver was one of the tightest office markets in North America at year-end 2025 even as vacancy and availability started to rise as the result of new supply delivered in midtown and suburban markets and softening lease activity downtown. Declining suburban vacancy, particularly in Burnaby and Surrey, had been offsetting rising vacancy in Vancouver’s midtown and downtown submarkets in 2025, but new supply and mediocre leasing activity in Vancouver impacted regional performance. Overall vacancy downtown had remained ~12% for the past two years but drifted upwards by year-end 2025 accompanied by elevated availability in all classes as negative annual absorption was recorded downtown for the first time since 2020. Regional class A vacancy rose to 9.2% from 8.5% a year ago, primarily due to the delivery of new supply outside of downtown, while downtown class A vacancy has been on the rise since mid-year to 11% from 9.9% with no new supply delivered. Downtown tenant consolidations and moderate leasing volume led to a lacklustre year that produced upward pressure on market indicators signalling the modest market recovery underway since late 2023 may be in danger of stalling out. Regional annual absorption of ~838k sf occurred mostly in the suburbs in 2025: Absorption in Surrey (361k), Burnaby (147k), Richmond (108k), Tri-Cities (58k) and the North Shore (51k) comprised 87% of the space occupied in the region. While new construction remained largely at a standstill in Downtown Vancouver, new supply did come online in the midtown submarket of Vancouver Periphery, which generated ~340k sf of absorption in 2025. While an increase in achievable office rents downtown will be necessary in determining when new construction kicks off, demand downtown also needs to improve considerably to provide the confidence needed to support the next development cycle. The flight-to-quality trend that defined the office market during the past two years may be showing signs of weakening, particularly in downtown Vancouver, with few trophy options left and availability and vacancy in class A space rising.

Vancouver Industrial Market Report

GVA industrial vacancy rose to 3.3% at the close of 2025, which remained the highest level of vacancy recorded in the GVA since mid-2015. Vacancy has been rising steadily since 2021. Annual absorption of ~426k sf in 2025 continued the trend of a steady decline in regional annual absorption that has been underway since 2020 when ~4.0 msf of annual absorption was recorded. Sublease space availability reached ~2.1 msf at year-end 2025, the second-highest amount recorded since 2008 when research coverage was initiated and will impact market dynamics on a go-forward basis. GVA industrial leasing activity surged in 2025, particularly in the large-format category, as tenants keen to engage in a flight to quality regionally took advantage of elevated vacancy and availability. Maple Meadows had the highest GVA industrial vacancy at 6.5%, followed by Delta and Burnaby (both 4.1%). Vancouver was at 3.8%. The North Shore (1.6%) was the tightest followed by the Fraser Valley (2.5%), Richmond (2.9%) and Surrey (3%). A bifurcation in market demand has resulted in substantial performance differentials among building size segments in the GVA with large-format space actively sought after by third-party logistics providers and distribution companies. Meanwhile, the small to mid-bay inventory remains significantly challenged with most of the market’s vacancy and availability located in these building types with oversupply delivered in 2024/25 further highlighting the weakened demand. With limited new speculative development larger than 100k sf currently underway in the GVA, there is a notable gap in new supply through 2026 and well into 2027. Build-to-suits remain one of the only options for users seeking large-format space. Federal tax incentives such as the Productivity Super-Deduction, which allows for the faster write-off of capital investment related to real estate acquisitions used for manufacturing/processing, will likely drive additional industrial activity in 2026+.