Orange County Retail Figures Q4 2025

– The Orange County retail market closed Q4 2025 with an availability rate of 3.9%, a decrease of 10 basis points (bps) from the previous quarter. With demand holding strong and minimal new development in the pipeline, availability is expected to remain low in the near term.

– Net absorption improved to 176,000 sq. ft. in Q4 2025, reversing the negative 46,000 sq. ft. recorded in Q3 2025, an improvement of more than 550,000 sq. ft. over the past two quarters. The recovery is largely due to the new leasing of space vacated during the wave of retailer bankruptcies earlier in 2025.

– A total of 31,000 sq. ft. delivered in Q4 2025, down from 53,000 sq. ft. in Q3 2025. While developers remained interested, constrained site availability and elevated construction costs continued to challenge new ground-up development in the county.

– The overall average net asking rent declined by $0.05 quarter-over-quarter to $2.51 in Q4 2025. The decline stemmed from the Central County submarket, where rents fell $0.14 as over 70% of the newly available space consisted of lower quality, Class C product.

– Retail investment sales totaled $84.7 million in Q4 2025, declining after the elevated $339.4 million recorded in Q3 2025. This quarter’s activity shifted toward smaller deals, with no transactions above $40 million recorded this quarter as compared to five in the previous quarter.