How much does industrial property management cost in Vancouver?

In Metro Vancouver, commercial property management fees typically run 3–8% of gross collected rent (published rate cards from Metro Vancouver managers, 2025–26). Single-tenant industrial on a net lease sits at the low end, often 3–4% or a flat monthly fee, because the tenant carries most operating items. Leasing commissions are commonly 4–6% of the total lease value or roughly one month's rent per year of term. David's leasing fee is typically the first and last months' rent on the lease, and ongoing management is quoted per property.

What is small-bay industrial?

Multi-tenant industrial buildings divided into units of roughly 1,000–5,000 sq ft, each with its own overhead door, small office and washroom. Tenants are trades, contractors, small manufacturers, e-commerce, auto and fitness uses. It is the most liquid industrial product in Metro Vancouver because the tenant pool is deep, and the most management-intensive because there are many tenants and doors.

How long does it take to lease industrial space in Metro Vancouver?

90–180 days is typical for well-priced small-bay industrial in Metro Vancouver, based on brokerage market reports and our portfolio, and often faster when availability is tight. Larger or specialised space (heavy power, cold storage, yard, rail, river access) takes longer because fewer tenants can use it and their due diligence and permits take longer.

What is Metro Vancouver's industrial availability rate?

Brokerage market reports put Metro Vancouver industrial availability at roughly 3–4% in 2025, among the tightest in North America, after a period of rising availability from the near-zero levels of 2021–22. The practical effect for an owner: well-located, correctly priced small-bay space still leases quickly, but tenants now negotiate free rent and allowances again.

Do I need a Phase I environmental assessment to lease my industrial property?

Not legally to lease it, but a current Phase I is what a lender requires, what a buyer will demand, and what protects you when a tenant leaves. BC's Environmental Management Act and Contaminated Sites Regulation attach obligations to specified industrial and commercial uses at triggers such as permits, decommissioning and sale. The lease should require the tenant to report and remediate its own contamination. General information; confirm with your lawyer and an environmental consultant.

Can I lease my industrial unit for live/work?

Only where the zoning permits it. Vancouver's I-1 and IC districts and the City of North Vancouver's CD zones permit live/work on specific parcels; most industrial zones prohibit residential occupancy outright. Our 1496 Rupert St building in North Vancouver is a CD8 live/work example. See the live/work zoning guide before you advertise a unit that way.

What should be in an industrial lease that is different from office or retail?

Clear provisions on environmental responsibility, permitted use and hazardous materials; who maintains the overhead doors, dock levellers, roof and yard; restrictions on outdoor storage and vehicle parking; slab and structural loading limits; restoration at the end of the term; and, on a multi-tenant site, how yard and truck court are shared. Commercial leases in BC fall under the Commercial Tenancy Act. Have your lawyer draft it.

Do you manage industrial property in Delta, Surrey and Langley?

Yes. Our current portfolio includes an 86,249 sq ft Fraser River industrial site on Gunderson Rd in Delta, leased to a warehousing tenant on a 5-year term. We work the Delta, Surrey, Richmond, Burnaby, Port Coquitlam and Langley industrial corridors as well as Vancouver's Mount Pleasant, Grandview and Marine Drive districts.

Owner services · Industrial

Industrial property management in Vancouver: small-bay, warehouse, yard and live/work

We lease and run industrial buildings for private owners in the tightest industrial market in Canada. Metro Vancouver industrial availability is roughly 3–4% per brokerage market reports, small-bay space typically leases in 90–180 days, and industrial is asking a median of $21.00 per sq ft per year across 243 priced listings. David quotes a flat structure per property.

Talk about my building How we lease space

Availability: brokerage market reports, 2025. Asking rates: Prospect OS scrape of live Craigslist and Kijiji listings, updated 2026-09-17. Fees: published rate cards from Metro Vancouver managers, 2025–26.

3–4%

industrial availability, Metro Vancouver

brokerage market reports, 2025

$21.00

median asking base rent, /sq ft/yr

243 priced listings, 2026-09-17

90–180

days to lease, typical small-bay

longer for specialised space

86,249

sq ft leased at Gunderson Rd, Delta

warehousing tenant, 5-year term

What kinds of industrial property do we manage?

Product	Typical unit	Tenants	What the management work is
Small-bay / flex	1,000–5,000 sq ft, grade door, small office	Trades, contractors, e-commerce, auto, fitness, small manufacturing	Many tenants and doors; turnover; CAM across units; use conflicts
Warehouse / distribution	5,000–100,000+ sq ft, dock and grade doors	3PL, wholesalers, food distribution, building supply	Single or few tenants; roof, paving, dock equipment, sprinkler inspections
Yard / outdoor storage	Fenced, paved or gravel land, often with a small building	Trucking, equipment, containers, contractors' yards	Zoning and screening compliance; drainage; neighbour complaints; priced per acre
Live/work industrial	Studio or shop with a residential component on specific CD, I-1 or IC parcels	Makers, artists, small manufacturers	Narrow tenant pool; occupancy rules; higher rent per sq ft

Product types across Metro Vancouver. Live/work is only lawful where the zoning says so; see the live/work zoning guide.

This page is for owners. Tenants looking for industrial space should go to the commercial portfolio. For the live/work rules parcel by parcel, read live/work zoning in Metro Vancouver.

What does an industrial tenant check before signing?

Industrial tenants are practical. They will ask six questions in the first five minutes, and the listing that answers them up front is the one that gets the showing. If your listing has been up for months, the commercial listing audit checks whether it answers them.

Truck access and loading

Can a 53-foot trailer get in, turn and dock? Grade-level versus dock-level doors, door count and clear height at the door decide which tenants can use the space at all. We measure and photograph the truck court before marketing.

Clear ceiling height

Older small-bay stock in Vancouver and Burnaby is often 16–20 feet clear; newer product is 24–32. Racking tenants and 3PLs price on cubic feet, not square feet. State the clear height, not the height to the roof deck.

Power

Amperage, voltage and phase (100A single-phase versus 200A or 400A three-phase) are the first question from any manufacturer, food processor or EV-related tenant. A service upgrade through BC Hydro takes months; know what you have before you list.

Zoning and permitted use

Vancouver's I-1, I-2 and IC districts and M-1/M-2 zones, and the M, IL and I zones in Burnaby, Surrey, Delta and Richmond, each permit different uses and different amounts of accessory office. A use that needs a development permit is a longer deal.

Environmental

A current Phase I environmental site assessment is what a lender, a buyer and a careful tenant will ask for. BC's Environmental Management Act and Contaminated Sites Regulation require a site disclosure statement for specified industrial uses at certain triggers.

Yard and outdoor storage

Fenced, paved yard is scarce and priced separately per sq ft or per acre per month. Confirm the zoning allows outdoor storage and what screening the municipality requires before you advertise it.

How do zoning and environmental compliance work for industrial owners?

Zoning. Every municipality in Metro Vancouver zones industrial land differently, and the difference decides your tenant pool. Vancouver's I-1 and I-2 districts and IC (industrial-commercial) districts allow different mixes of manufacturing, wholesale, accessory office and, on specific parcels, live/work; its M-1 and M-2 zones are heavier. Burnaby's M districts, Surrey's IL, IB and IH zones and Delta's I zones each set their own limits on retail, office share, outdoor storage and vehicle repair. A prospective use that needs a development permit or a rezoning is a six-to-twelve-month deal, not a ninety-day one. We check the use against the bylaw before every showing.

Environmental. A Phase I environmental site assessment (a records and site review, no sampling) is the baseline document for an industrial building: lenders require it, buyers demand it and a careful tenant will ask for it. On the lease side, the tenant should be required to report spills, comply with environmental law, and remediate contamination it causes, with a restoration obligation and a right for the owner to test at the end of the term.

Rules that apply

Zoning bylaws are set by each municipality: City of Vancouver I-1/I-2/IC and M zones; Burnaby M; Surrey IL/IB/IH; Delta I.
Environmental Management Act and the Contaminated Sites Regulation (Province of BC) attach site-disclosure obligations to specified industrial uses at triggers such as permits, decommissioning and sale.
Commercial Tenancy Act (RSBC 1996, c. 57) governs the lease itself.
GST applies to industrial rent; PST does not. Industrial land is assessed as Class 5 (light industry) or Class 6 (business) depending on use; check the current mill rate.

General information, not legal advice. Confirm permitted use with the municipality and lease wording with your lawyer.

What is industrial space asking in Metro Vancouver right now?

Asking base rent for industrial from 243 priced listings (348 industrial listings total), updated 2026-09-17. Note how tight the band is compared with office and retail: the 25th to 75th percentile spans a few dollars. Industrial is priced on function (height, doors, power, yard), not finish, so an owner who over-asks by $3 is over-asking by roughly 15%.

Cities with fewer than 8 priced industrial listings are not charted: Burnaby (n=3), Delta (n=3), Surrey (n=2), Langley (n=2). For those, use the Metro-wide figure and the city page. Run the commercial lease rate estimator and the vacancy cost calculator together before you set the number.

Industrial asking base rent by city

$/sq ft/yr

All industrial (median size 2,528 sq ft)

$21 median

25th–75th: $18–$25 · n=243

Vancouver

$21 median

25th–75th: $18–$25 · n=168

Richmond

$25 median

25th–75th: $20–$30 · n=18

Port Coquitlam

$20 median

25th–75th: $18–$21 · n=26

North Vancouver

$24 median

25th–75th: $18–$26 · n=8

$0$20$40

Asking base rent, CAD/sq ft/yr, from 243 priced industrial listings (348 industrial listings; 1,216 total) on Craigslist and Kijiji (Prospect OS), updated 2026-09-17. Asking ≠ achieved; additional rent (property tax, insurance, CAM) is on top.

North Vancouver Burnaby Richmond Surrey Langley Coquitlam & Tri-Cities

Why is Metro Vancouver industrial different from anywhere else?

Land scarcity. The region is boxed in by mountains, the US border, the ocean and the Agricultural Land Reserve. Metro Vancouver's own industrial lands inventories have repeatedly found the supply of vacant, developable industrial land running short. Existing buildings therefore hold value that in other cities only new construction holds.
Submarkets behave differently. Vancouver's Mount Pleasant and Grandview districts are being pushed toward IC and creative-industrial uses at higher rents; Marine Drive and the Fraser River frontage in Vancouver, Richmond and Delta serve port, river and truck-dependent tenants; Port Coquitlam, Surrey and Langley carry the bulk of newer small-bay strata product. Burnaby's Big Bend and Lake City sit between.
Strata industrial. A large share of small-bay stock is strata-titled. Strata bylaws, insurance and the depreciation report add a layer of compliance the manager handles alongside the municipality's.

Key takeaway

3–4%

industrial availability, Metro Vancouver (brokerage market reports, 2025)

Up from the near-zero levels of 2021–22 but still among the tightest in North America. Correctly priced small-bay space leases; tenants have started to negotiate free rent and allowances again. The days of leasing anything at any price are over, which is exactly when pricing against live asking rates matters.

Price my space

What does this look like on a real site?

Live example · leased, 5-year term

Gunderson Rd, Fraser River industrial site, Delta

An 86,249 sq ft industrial site on the Fraser River in Delta, leased to a warehousing tenant on a 5-year term. The site's value was in three things a listing photo does not show: yard and truck circulation, river frontage, and a location inside Delta's industrial zoning where a warehousing use needed no discretionary approval. The work was matching those to a tenant whose operation depended on exactly them, then structuring a five-year term that justified the tenant's set-up cost and gave the owner five years of net income under a lease that assigns environmental and yard-maintenance responsibility clearly.

Read the Gunderson Rd case

Live example · for lease

Castle Armory & Residence, 1496 Rupert St, North Vancouver

8,003 sq ft live/work building on a CD8 site (MLS C8077795, listed by David with Heller Murch Realty for cooperating brokers). Live/work is a narrow tenant pool, so the marketing is direct outreach to makers and small manufacturers who also want to live on site.

See the listing in the portfolio

What does industrial property management cost?

In Metro Vancouver, commercial property management fees typically run 3–8% of gross collected rent (published rate cards from Metro Vancouver managers, 2025–26). Leasing commissions are commonly 4–6% of the total lease value or roughly one month's rent per year of term. Under a net lease the management fee is usually recoverable from the tenant as additional rent. David's leasing fee is typically the first and last months' rent on the lease, and ongoing management is quoted per property. The fees page has an estimator and the agreement red flags.

3–4%, or a flat monthly fee

Single-tenant industrial, net lease

One tenant, one invoice, one relationship
Tenant carries most operating items directly
Management is lease administration, inspections and the environmental file

The least management-intensive asset in the region, and priced that way

Moves up the 3–8% band

Multi-tenant small-bay with shared yard

Many doors, many tenants, more turnover
CAM and yard allocation across units
Use conflicts, parking and outdoor-storage enforcement

Fee commonly recoverable from tenants under net leases

How long does it take to lease and onboard an industrial building?

90–180 days is typical for well-priced small-bay industrial in Metro Vancouver, based on brokerage market reports and our portfolio; longer for specialised space with heavy power, cold storage, rail or river access. Onboarding an existing building into management takes two to four weeks. A tenant use that needs a development permit adds months; a BC Hydro service upgrade adds months. Both are reasons to settle the tenant's requirements at the offer-to-lease stage, not after signing.

If you are weighing a sale against holding, the side-by-side is at sell or lease your commercial property. Sale advisory is executed by Lawrence Siccia (Engel & Völkers); David Siccia handles leasing and management.

01Price and prepare
1–2 weeks
Clear height, doors, power, yard and zoning confirmed and photographed; comparables pulled; Phase I located or commissioned.
02Market
4–16 weeks
Craigslist, Kijiji, LoopNet, SpaceList, signage, direct outreach to expanding trades and distributors; MLS through Engel & Völkers where cooperating brokers matter.
03Screen and negotiate the offer
2–4 weeks
Financials, references, corporate search, use confirmed against the bylaw; LOI on rent, term, deposit, environmental and restoration clauses.
04Lease, fixturing, commencement
2–12 weeks
Your lawyer drafts; tenant's improvements and any permits run; handover inspection; rent collection and the additional-rent estimate set up.

Questions industrial owners ask

Talk to David about your industrial property

Send the address, the clear height, door count and power if you know them. You get a base rent range against live asking rates and a realistic time-to-lease, whether or not you hire us.

Book a call about my building 236-998-5841

David Siccia Properties handles leasing and management. Property sales are executed by Lawrence Siccia, REALTOR®, Engel & Völkers Vancouver.

General information, not legal or tax advice

Zoning is set by each municipality; environmental obligations by the Province under the Environmental Management Act and Contaminated Sites Regulation; commercial tenancies by the Commercial Tenancy Act (RSBC 1996, c. 57); GST by the CRA. Confirm permitted use with the municipality, and lease wording with your lawyer, before you commit to a tenant.

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