Inland Empire, CA Retail Market Report Q3 2026

Absorption Runs 1.9x Deliveries as Sales Volume Rises 55%

Demand

Inland Empire absorbed 543K SF in Q3 2026, against -391K SF in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 6.0%, 53 bps tighter than Q3 2025. Airport/Ontario is the tightest submarket at 4.0% vacancy; Chino/Chino Hills leads rent growth at +4.7%. Trailing-12-month absorption of 1.52M SF compares with -800K SF a year earlier. Asking rent of $27.41/SF is up 2.9% year over year and a record.

Supply

Inland Empire delivered 182K SF in Q3 and 790K SF over the trailing twelve months (-25% versus the prior TTM period). Space under construction equals 0.5% of inventory, concentrated in Riverside at 1.5% of its stock. Annual deliveries peaked at 7.84M SF in 2007. Q3 deliveries were 29% below last year’s 258K SF. The 1.09M SF pipeline equals about three quarters of absorption at the trailing pace.

Investment Market

Inland Empire recorded $2.5B in sales over the trailing twelve months, +55% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $577M. The high-water mark in this series is $2.1B in 2021.

Inland Empire cap rates average 6.50%, up for 18 straight quarters. Pricing sits at $290/SF, higher for 16 consecutive years. The cap rate is 57 bps above the Q1 2022 low of 5.94%. Price per SF is at a record.