Ottawa Retail — Q1 2026

The Quarter in Brief

Ottawa retail enters 2026 stabilizing after a soft 2025 marked by Hudson's Bay store closures. Only one broker in this set publishes Ottawa retail fundamentals — JLL — so the market read below is JLL's; the cap-rate readings come from CBRE's national survey, and the macro backdrop from Colliers. JLL's first-quarter report is mostly a wrap of 2025 performance with current standing levels for vacancy and rent and a partial 2026-to-date read, and the figures are labelled accordingly throughout.

On JLL's count, vacancy stabilized at 3.3 percent after rising about one percentage point through 2025. The year's stress sat in absorption: JLL recorded negative net absorption of 545,086 square feet for 2025, then reported that the market returned to positive net absorption in 2026 to date. New supply stayed tight — JLL put 2025 net completions at 103,768 square feet and new supply down 41 percent on the year, far below its historic average — and landlords leaned on repositioning existing centres. Asking rent was $30.22 per square foot, with 2025 rent growth of 7.3 percent that JLL called the strongest among its major Canadian markets.

Pricing was quiet. CBRE marked every Ottawa retail cap-rate subtype unchanged on the quarter, with urban-streetfront product tightest at 5.75 to 6.25 percent and the enclosed and open-air formats clustered in the low-to-mid sixes. On CBRE's cross-market ranking, Ottawa's regional-mall benchmark of 6.3 percent was tied with Edmonton, roughly fifth-to-sixth tightest of thirteen Canadian markets.

This report relays what those brokers reported for the quarter. It contains no forecasts or recommendations of its own; where a broker's outlook is described, it is attributed to that broker.