Boston, MA Retail Market Report Q3 2026

Pricing Reaches a Record $323/SF as Completions Fall 25%

Demand

Boston absorbed 306K SF in Q3 2026, against-271K SF in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 2.7%, unchanged from Q3 2025. North Shore is the tightest submarket at 1.6% vacancy; MetroWest leads rent growth at +1.0%. Trailing-12-month absorption of -453K SF compares with -1.32M SF a year earlier. Asking rent of $28.97/SF is up 0.5% year over year and 1.4% below the Q1 2026 peak of $29.39/SF. Vacancy sits 53 bps above the Q3 2024 low of 2.1%.

Supply

Boston delivered 42K SF in Q3 and 440K SF over the trailing twelve months (-25% versus the prior TTM period). Space under construction equals 0.2% of inventory, concentrated in North Shore at 1.4% of its stock. Annual deliveries peaked at 4.27M SF in 2008. Q3 deliveries were less than half of last year’s 119K SF.

Investment Market

Boston recorded $1.6B in sales over the trailing twelve months, -19% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $387M. The high-water mark in this series is $2.7B in 2022.

Boston cap rates average 6.60%. Pricing sits at $323/SF, higher for 2 consecutive years. Price per SF is at a record.