Ottawa Retail Market Report

Recovery ongoing in central neighborhoods. Ottawa’s retail sector continued to show a split in demand during the first half of 2025. Downtown leasing activity continued to recover, but demand softened across most suburban and outlying submarkets. The core’s vacancy rate fell to 3.3 per cent – an 80-basis-point decline from a year earlier – partially offsetting rising vacancies elsewhere in the metro. This downtown strength reflects both ongoing return-to-office progress and support from the Downtown Ottawa Action Agenda. Early achievements from this initiative include the planned Live Nation venue and stronger foot traffic in the ByWard Market. The strategy also aims to add 40,000 residents and 50,000 jobs to the core by 2034, which stands to provide a major boost for the metro’s retail sector over the next decade. In the near term, however, the vacancy rate is expected to inch higher as population growth slows, with the impact likely to be more pronounced outside the downtown core.