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 was stable at 3.0% at third-quarter 2025, which remained the highest level of vacancy recorded in the GVA since 2015. Vacancy had been rising since 2021. Negative absorption of ~69k sf in the first nine months of 2025 marked an improvement with Q3 absorption of ~343k sf offsetting substantial negative absorption in the second quarter. Sublease space availability reached ~2.1 msf at third-quarter 2025, which marked the second-highest amount recorded since 2008 when research coverage of the region was initiated. GVA industrial leasing activity appeared to regain some of its earlier momentum in third-quarter 2025 after a temporary case of market paralysis in Q2 likely related to U.S. tariff threats. Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows had the highest industrial vacancy in the GVA at 6.2%, followed by Vancouver (4.0%), Delta (3.8%) and Burnaby (3.7%). The North Shore (1.8%) was the lowest followed by Richmond (2.2%). While the shifting threat of U.S. tariffs may not have abated in third-quarter 2025, the potential repercussions and subsequent economic impacts are increasingly factored in by Canadian businesses that are making real estate decisions. The flight to quality that has been manifesting in the GVA’s industrial market will initiate a resumption in new supply breaking ground in 2026 despite the elevated vacancy generated by rising availability in inefficient class B and C buildings. Industrial strata sale proceeds in the first nine months of 2025 are the lowest since 2020 in terms of overall dollar volume. Strata pricing has continued to decline thanks to low demand, which has led to fewer strata projects starting. GVA industrial sale proceeds of ~C$625M in the first nine months of 2025 will likely result in the lowest annual investment in more than decade with quarterly industrial sales by dollar volume in steep decline since the third quarter of 2024.