Austin, TX Retail Market Report Q3 2026

Sales Volume Rises 75%; Q3 Absorption Jumps to 1.17M SF

Demand

Austin absorbed 1.17M SF in Q3 2026, against 385K SF in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 3.6%, 55 bps looser than Q3 2025. Southeast / Bastrop is the tightest submarket at 1.3% vacancy; Hays County leads rent growth at +1.9%. Trailing-12-month absorption of 1.92M SF is up from 1.42M SF a year earlier. Asking rent of $31.79/SF is up 1.1% year over year and within 1% of the Q2 2026 peak of $31.92/SF.

Supply

Austin delivered 1.38M SF in Q3 and 2.76M SF over the trailing twelve months (+48% versus the prior TTM period). Space under construction equals 2.6% of inventory, concentrated in Georgetown at 7.9% of its stock. Annual deliveries peaked at 5.18M SF in 2006. Q3 deliveries were 272% above last year’s 370K SF. The 3.22M SF pipeline equals about six and a half quarters of absorption at the trailing pace.

Investment Market

Austin recorded $1.1B in sales over the trailing twelve months, +75% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $184M. The high-water mark in this series is $1.1B in 2016.

Austin cap rates average 6.53%, up for 16 straight quarters. Pricing sits at $365/SF, higher for 8 consecutive years. The cap rate is 61 bps above the Q3 2022 low of 5.92%.