ASKING RATES FOR OFFICE SPACE TICK UP AS VACANCIES DECREASE
Changes in commercial real estate vacancy rates, rents, and net absorption reflect the health of the market, as well as opportunities for business expansion. Lower vacancy rates, increasing net absorption, and increasing rents can signal a need for investments in new facilities, thus stimulating construction and related building activities. This indicator tracks average rental prices for office, retail, and industrial real estate, and vacancy rates for office and industrial. New in 2026, this indicator tracks retail availability rate, sometimes called the availability index, which reflects vacant space immediately available as well as space currently occupied that is being marketed due to an upcoming lease expiration. Also tracked is net absorption of industrial real estate, which comprises the largest share of market space available in the region and is a key indicator of overall market health.[1]
TREND
Industrial real estate, which accounts for the vast majority of the total market share (77%), had a 7.3% vacancy rate in the fourth quarter of 2025, almost double the vacancy rate of 4.0% 10 years ago in 2016. However, between 2024 and 2025, the industrial vacancy rate remained relatively flat, rising only 0.2%.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, office space, which accounts for 3% of market share, had a 5.9% vacancy rate, a decrease of two percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2024 (7.9%). Over the last decade, office vacancy rates have dropped by more than half, from 12.5% in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The retail availability rate in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 7.0%, an increase from 6.5% in 2024.
OFFICE VACANCY RATE DROPS AS INDUSTRIAL VACANCY RATE REMAINS HISTORICALLY HIGH
Office and Industrial Real Estate Vacancy Rates in Riverside-San Bernardino, 2016-2025 (Fourth Quarters)
After adjusting for inflation, the asking rent for office space decreased 13% over the past 10 years, from $2.51 per square foot in real dollars in the fourth quarter of 2016 to $2.19 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, in the past year, office space rent increased 4%, from $2.11 per square foot in 2024.
The asking rent for industrial space experienced the opposite trend, increasing 51% over the past 10 years after adjusting for inflation, but decreasing 13% over the past year, from $1.19 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $1.03 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Retail rents, for which only two years of data are available based on the new methodology, decreased 5% from $1.82 per square foot in real dollars in the fourth quarter in 2024 to $1.73 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2025.
OFFICE RENTS SEE MODEST INCREASE AS INDUSTRIAL RENTS DIP
Inflation Adjusted Office, Retail, and Industrial Real Estate Average Asking Rents in Riverside-San Bernardino, 2016-2025 (Fourth Quarters)
GEOGRAPHIC COMPARISON
Inland Empire commercial rents are consistently more affordable than rents in Los Angeles and Orange counties. In the fourth quarter of 2025, industrial rent in the Riverside-San Bernardino metro area was 16% less expensive than Los Angeles County and 36% less expensive than Orange County. In the same period, office rent was 46% less expensive than Los Angeles County and 23% less expensive than Orange County. Meanwhile, retail rent was 40% less expensive than Los Angeles County and 31% less expensive than Orange County.
RIVERSIDE-SAN BERNARDINO METRO AREA RENTS REMAIN BELOW REGIONAL NEIGHBORS
Office, Retail and Industrial Real Estate Average Asking Rents, Regional Comparison, Fourth Quarter 2025
[1] Net absorption is the change in occupied square feet from one period to the next.