Demand for warehousing, other industrial leasing showing stress: CBRE

Workers walk through a Walmart distribution centre in Calgary, Thursday, March 28, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

TORONTO — CBRE Ltd. says leasing trends for warehouses and other industrial properties are showing signs of business stress.

The commercial real estate firm says national net lease absorptions turned negative in the second quarter, marking just the second time in five years a quarter has gone negative.

CBRE says market players are citing the economic uncertainty from the trade war with the United States for the drop, though it’s also coming after several years of booming growth.

Paul Morassutti, chairman of CBRE Canada, says it’s pretty clear from the news why the market is slowing, but that even without tariffs, a wave of space coming online will test the market.

He says the pandemic-induced logistics rush that led to a speculative construction boom means rising availability through 2026, as the industrial market goes through right-sizing.

The market had 1.4 million square feet of net negative absorption in the second quarter, a sharp reversal from the more than six million square feet of positive absorption seen every quarter between mid-2020 and the end of 2022.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2025.