Houston industrial space, built around the busiest port on the Gulf.
Houston is a port market and an energy market at once, which gives it a tenant base that most distribution hubs lack. Absorption hit a four-year high in Q2 2026, vacancy is falling, and the construction pipeline is large. The window for the deepest concessions is narrowing, but it is still open in the newest speculative product.
Where the leverage sits right now.
Net absorption of 7.6 million square feet in one quarter is the strongest in four years, and vacancy fell 40 basis points to 7.2 percent. The market is tightening. A tenant who waits for it to soften further is likely to be waiting a while. The concessions worth pursuing now are in the 26 million square feet under construction, where developers need signed leases before delivery.
Sublease availability of 7.3 million square feet is a lever most tenants overlook. Sublessors are motivated in a way landlords are not, and a well-located sublease with term left can beat a direct deal on economics even after accounting for the shorter commitment.
Rent of $10.14 per square foot was down 1.6 percent year over year on Colliers' count even as the market absorbed space. That tells you landlords are competing on rate for the volume of new product coming online. Use it.
What the major brokerages report.
Each firm tracks a slightly different building set, and in some markets a different metric, so the figures differ. We show all of them rather than average them, because an average of three different definitions describes nothing. Where the spread matters to a negotiation, we say so above.
| Firm | Quarter | Vacancy | Asking rent | Net absorption | Under construction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colliers colliers.com | Q2 2026 | 7.2% | $10.14 per sq. ft. | +7.6M sq. ft. | 26.1M sq. ft. |
| CBRE cbre.com | Q2 2026 | 6.7% | n/a | About 7M sq. ft. | 17.7M sq. ft. |
Reach, infrastructure, and labor.
Share of the US population within 450 road-equivalent miles (one-day ground) and 1,000 miles (two-day ground) of the market center, computed against population-weighted centroids of all 3,125 US counties (2020 Census). Bands approximate FedEx and UPS Ground zone tables within roughly 10 percent and are for comparing markets, not quoting transit times.
Sources: ofis.trade.gov, taxfoundation.org
Where the buildings are.
US-290, Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway. The largest submarket by inventory, with the most big-box distribution and the deepest labor pool.
I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road toward Bush Intercontinental. Air cargo, e-commerce and regional distribution.
Pasadena, La Porte, Baytown and the Ship Channel. Port-dependent distribution, transload, and the petrochemical supply chain.
US-59 toward Sugar Land and Fort Bend County. Newer product serving the fastest-growing residential base in the metro.
I-10 east toward Baytown and the Grand Parkway. Large-format distribution with direct access to the port complex.
The operations that choose Houston.
We represent tenants and buyers only. No landlord listings in Houston, so every building in the market is a candidate and every negotiation is on your side of the table. See the operations we serve.
Evaluating Houston?
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