Q2 2023 Vancouver Industrial Market Report

For warehouse users, the second quarter offered a glimmer of hope. After a prolonged period of rapidly rising rents, asking lease rates for the second quarter were little changed, marking the second three-month period of price-stability. While falling rates, are highly unlikely, a combination of marginally more supply, and a modest reduction in demand, has put the once-hot Vancouver warehouse leasing market onto a more even keel. The region-wide availability rate increased 30 basis points (bps) to finish the quarter at 2.5%, and absorption (increase in occupied space) was a modest 642,000 square feet, bringing year-to-date absorption to just over one million square feet. By comparison, first half 2022 absorption was 1.45 million square feet. The balance of 2023, and into 2024, warehouse users should expect a further increase in space available to lease (or purchase), but not sufficient to alter the market in any significant way.