Vancouver Office Market Report
Metro Vancouver was one of the tightest office markets in North America through third-quarter 2025 as vacancy and availability remained stable with no new downtown development underway and modest new supply in the pipeline. Stabilized vacancy in the suburbs, particularly Burnaby and Surrey, combined with tightening vacancy in Vancouver Periphery has offset rising vacancy in the Broadway Corridor and Downtown urban submarkets. Overall vacancy downtown has stubbornly remained +/- 70 bps from 12% for the past two years even as class A vacancy has tightened and overall vacancy in most suburban markets fell to less than 7%. Regional class A vacancy has averaged ~8.5% since 2023 while downtown class A vacancy averaged ~11% in the same period. Tenants downtown may be discounting leasing space in ‘vintage’ class A premises. Office leasing decisions require clarity on long-term business needs. Elevated economic uncertainty has encouraged significant hesitation for many tenants. As a result, some occupiers may have paused leasing decisions in 3Q25. Regional absorption of more than 425k sf through third-quarter 2025, led by Burnaby (159k), Surrey (63k), the Tri-Cities (60k), and the North Shore (46k) demonstrated strong suburban demand that has comprised 91% of the space occupied to date. New construction remained largely at a standstill in Downtown Vancouver in the back half of 2025, which continued to contribute to the rising risk of a lack of new class A/trophy space in the late 2020s given development timelines. While achievable office rents downtown will likely play a larger role in determining when new construction kicks off, demand downtown needs to improve notably to provide the confidence needed to support the first new tower of the next development cycle. Recent news that at least two large class A opportunities downtown are coming available from a notable tech tenant consolidating its operations will provide some relief in a submarket where there are limited options greater than 50k sf in size.
Download Vancouver Office Market Report 3Q25Vancouver Industrial Market Report
GVA industrial vacancy rose to 3.1% at mid-2025, which was the highest level of vacancy recorded in the GVA since 2015. Vacancy has been on the rise since the end of 2021. Negative absorption of ~438k sf in the first half of 2025 was an improvement on the negative absorption of ~1.5 msf in the first half of 2024 but the Q2 2025 drop in demand was offset by solid Q1. Sublease space availability climbed to ~2.4 msf at mid-2025, which marked the highest amount recorded since 2008 when research coverage of the region was initiated. GVA industrial leasing market activity had gained momentum through the end of 2024 and to start 2025, but uncertainty related to U.S. tariff threats seems to have ended that in Q2 2025. Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows had the highest industrial vacancy in the GVA at 4.2%, followed by the Fraser Valley (3.9%) and Vancouver and the Tri-Cities, both at 3.7%. The North Shore (1.5%) was the lowest followed by Richmond (2.4%). The prolonged uncertainty generated by the constantly shifting threats of U.S. tariffs and their subsequent economic impact has led some businesses and investors to move forward while others delay, cancel or modify investment decisions. Overall sales and leasing activity were muted in the first half of 2025 while those submarkets with businesses that faced greater exposure to trade-related activities tended to record higher vacancy and sublease availability than others. Industrial strata sale proceeds of ~C$369M at mid-2025 is the lowest first-half total since 2020 in terms of overall dollar volume. This was due to second-quarter dollar volume of ~C$103M, the lowest quarterly strata investment since Q1 2019. GVA industrial sale proceeds of ~C$395M in the first half of 2025 (not including strata) was the lowest first-half investment total since at least 2015 with quarterly industrial sales by dollar volume in steep decline since the third quarter of 2024.
