Norfolk Industrial Figures Q1 2026

The Norfolk Industrial market has been shifting from a tightly-supplied environment to one defined by rising vacancy and softer demand. Vacancy climbed from 2.0% in Q1 2023 to 7.5% in Q1 2026 as successive waves of new product were delivered. Construction peaked at 6.6 million sq. ft. underway in Q4 2024 and had largely moved through the pipeline by Q1 2026. With only 54,000 sq. ft. remaining under construction, much of the new supply pressure has now hit the inventory.

Over the latest year, fundamentals deteriorated meaningfully. Compared with Q1 2025, vacancy in Q1 2026 increased by 3.1 percentage points while availability rose by 3.3 percentage points, and net absorption swung from a positive 86,000 sq. ft. to negative 837,000 sq. ft. This loosening translated into modest pricing pressure: the average asking rate edged down from $9.70 in Q1 2025 to $9.34 in Q1 2026. Even on a quarterly basis, conditions weakened, with vacancy up 1.0 percentage points from Q4 2025 despite deliveries falling from 1.4 million sq. ft. to 289,000 sq. ft., underscoring that demand had not kept pace with the expanded inventory.