Orange County continues to distinguish itself from most coastal markets. While many gateway cities are contending with slow growth and aging infrastructure, Orange County is benefiting from a rare combination of advanced manufacturing, tourism, destination-oriented investment, health care expansion, logistics infrastructure, and a steadily improving office market.
The office market continues to heal. Countywide vacancy stood at 14.2 percent in 3Q 2026, down 280 basis points year-over-year, while year-to-date absorption remained positive at nearly 1.1 million square feet. Leasing activity has held remarkably steady at approximately 4.8 million square feet through 3Q 2026 right on par with 2025 levels, supported by large occupiers and continued flight-to-quality demand. Class A assets continue to outperform, capturing 58 percent of year-to-date leasing activity. Office sales volume reached $2.8 billion, the highest level since 2019, and up 27 percent from 2025.
That recovery remains highly concentrated. Irvine and Irvine Spectrum continue to capture an outsized share of tenant relocations, with more than 220 Orange County tenants relocating between 2024 and 2Q 2026. Roughly 76 percent of movers chose class A space, taking advantage of elevated vacancy, generous concessions, and upgrade opportunities. Irvine Spectrum alone generated nearly 317,000 square feet of positive tenant migration, underscoring its position as the county’s dominant office node.
The industrial market is simultaneously undergoing a structural transformation. Aerospace and defense have overtaken logistics as a leading source of demand, with one of the largest defense technology firms occupying roughly 1.2 million square feet across Orange County. Aerospace and defense leasing exceeded logistics leasing for the first time in 2025 and continues absorbing many of the large industrial blocks previously occupied by distributors and e-commerce users. With the pandemic’s whiplash in consumer supply chains and still subdued consumer-related leasing, rent growth remains elusive. Despite this, rents remain well above their pre-pandemic trendline. Industrial sales volume is up 12 percent over its 2025 level and is on pace for its strongest year since 2021.
Beyond the property markets themselves, some of the county’s most important growth drivers are destination-oriented. The most visible is OCVIBE, the 100-acre entertainment and mixed-use district surrounding the Honda Center. Current phases include The Weave, a 168,137-square-foot class A office project, while the broader $4 billion vision includes residential, hospitality, retail, entertainment, public spaces, and transit-oriented development designed to create a new regional urban core around Anaheim’s Stadium District.
The county’s tourism economy remains equally important. Disneyland Resort continues to serve as one of California’s strongest visitation engines, employing about 35,000 and funding roughly 60 percent of Anaheim’s general fund. The resort broke ground on a 6,000-space garage and Harbor Boulevard bridge in August. It is the first physical step of its $1.9 billion DisneylandForward plan. That visitor traffic is showing up in retail fundamentals: retail vacancy in Central County, home to the resort, sits at 2.9 percent, below the countywide rate of 3.7 percent.
Major infrastructure is another layer of support for the region’s economy. The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles remain critical economic engines immediately adjacent to the market, while John Wayne Airport underpins the county’s most in-demand office corridor. The Greater Airport Area is Orange County’s largest office submarket, accounting for approximately 53 percent of countywide office leasing and nearly 953,000 square feet of year-to-date absorption, and its class A asking rents have risen 5.7 percent over the past year, triple the countywide pace.
Multifamily housing and health care are also increasingly shaping the landscape. The proposed Five Lagunas project in Laguna Hills, significant health care investments, and the acquisition of the 1.0-million-square-foot Ziggurat building illustrate how residential and health care uses are becoming increasingly important demand drivers alongside traditional office and industrial sectors.
What makes Orange County unique is its ability to blend innovation and lifestyle, where aerospace manufacturing, world-class tourism, mixed-use placemaking, and high-value employment centers reinforce one another to create a growth story that extends well beyond any single property type.
—Cushman & Wakefield
