Market Report
Charleston Retail Market Report
3Q 2026
Vacancy Holds Firm in Northern Corridors;
Affluent Visitors Buoy Downtown Retail
Faster-growing suburbs show stability. Softer tenant demand lifted metro vacancy 30 basis points year-over-year to a still-tight 3.5 percent in June. Leasing has favored smaller food and service retailers over big-box merchandise tenants, contributing to slower backfilling in mature suburbs of West Ashley and Mount Pleasant, where vacancy rose about 100 basis points annually. Vacancy changed little in North Charleston, Dorchester, and Berkeley counties, with Berkeley’s rate at just 2.4 percent amid strong household growth across Goose Creek, Nexton, and Cane Bay. Population growth should also remain relatively resilient despite fewer foreign arrivals, as international migration accounted for only about one-fifth of Charleston’s population gains since 2020.
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