Vancouver Retail Vacancy Keeps Falling: Why Finding Space Is Getting Harder

Colliers' Greater Vancouver Retail Report, Mid-Year 2026, released August 10, shows retail vacancy across Metro Vancouver continuing to tighten. The Urban Retail Colliers Index fell to 2.96% at mid-year 2026, down from 2.99% at year-end 2025, while the Suburban Retail Colliers Index dropped to 0.65%, down from 0.81% at mid-year 2025 (Colliers, August 10, 2026). At the same time, average monthly retail sales in BC reached $9.9 billion as of May 2026, up 3.4% year-over-year and up 4.5% from October 2025 (Colliers report, citing Statistics Canada, August 10, 2026).

As Colliers puts it: "Urban and suburban retail vacancies are slowly, but steadily, decreasing across the GVA" (Colliers, August 10, 2026).

More notable than the vacancy numbers themselves is what's coming next. Susan Thompson, Colliers Canada's Director of Research, put it directly: "the development pipeline is starting to constrict, leaving few options for new or expanding retailers" (Colliers, August 10, 2026). Several major mixed-use projects with significant retail components — Oakridge, Sen̓áḵw and Concord Metrotown — are nearing or reaching completion, and once that wave is absorbed, new retail supply is expected to slow noticeably. Downtown, the former Hudson's Bay flagship, a 620,000-square-foot property now owned by Onni Group, remains in what Colliers calls a "mid-transition," with no redevelopment plan yet disclosed.

Taken together, falling vacancy, a thinning supply pipeline, and still-growing retail sales point to one conclusion: good retail and restaurant space in Metro Vancouver is getting harder to come by. For owners searching for a new location, or considering expanding an existing one, that likely means less room to negotiate and a longer wait for the "right" new space to open up. Against that backdrop, upgrading the space you already have is often the more practical and controllable path forward.

As a design-build team that works with commercial clients across Metro Vancouver, Y&Y Construction sees this report confirm what we hear from clients directly: good locations are getting harder to find, and that isn't likely to reverse soon. Rather than spending time and budget chasing the "perfect" new address, it's often worth evaluating what your current space can become first. With the right planning and execution, an existing location can often get close to what a new build would offer — and be ready to operate much sooner.

• Colliers, Greater Vancouver Retail Report, Mid-Year 2026, via Retail Insider, August 10, 2026: https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2026/08/vancouver-retail-continues-to-be-a-resilient-real-estate-asset-class-colliers-report/