Market Insights
Honest reads on each Metro Vancouver industrial submarket, what’s driving demand, where supply sits, and what to expect in the next 6–18 months.
Featured Resource
Real-time availability, transaction comparables, and submarket benchmarks tracked across the Lower Mainland.
Submarkets
Submarket 01
Port-adjacent · last-mile · infill
Vancouver proper remains the tightest industrial submarket in Canada. Port-of-Vancouver-adjacent inventory commands premium pricing, and last-mile logistics tenants compete aggressively for any infill availability. Land is essentially unavailable; tenants and investors should expect lease economics that price in long-term scarcity.
Submarket 02
Manufacturing core · Big Bend · Lake City
Burnaby is the Lower Mainland’s historic manufacturing core. Big Bend continues to evolve toward higher-intensity uses, while Lake City and Still Creek attract tech-adjacent and light-industrial occupiers. Strata inventory turns relatively quickly; freestanding facilities are tightly held.
Submarket 03
Distribution · YVR-adjacent · cold storage
Richmond’s proximity to YVR, the Port, and the Highway 99 corridor make it the default distribution submarket for Metro Vancouver. Cold storage and food-grade tenants concentrate here, and large-format DC inventory remains the most actively absorbed asset profile in the region.
Submarket 04
Newton · Campbell Heights · Port Kells
Surrey carries the most active new development pipeline in the region. Campbell Heights and Port Kells deliver modern, large-bay, high-clear product to tenants priced out of the western submarkets. Lease economics still trail Vancouver and Burnaby on a $/sqft basis but are tightening rapidly.
Submarket 05
Heavy industrial · port logistics · trans-shipment
Annacis Island and Tilbury anchor Metro Vancouver’s heavy-industrial and port-logistics activity. Tenants here are often dealing with truck-intensive operations, large yards, and rail-served sites, a profile that is largely unreplicable elsewhere in the region.
Submarket 06
Emerging large-format · agricultural-industrial interface
The Langley-Abbotsford corridor is the frontier for large-format new development. ALR boundaries constrain supply, but the corridor continues to deliver some of the only large-format greenfield options available to occupiers and developers in the Lower Mainland.
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