How Much Does Warehouse Space Cost in the Inland Empire? (2026 Rent Guide)

How Much Does Warehouse Space Cost in the Inland Empire in 2026?

Where you land inside that range depends on submarket (West IE trades above East IE), building size, and building spec. Rents have corrected hard from the 2023 peak — Colliers pegs the decline at $0.65, or 39%, from the $1.64/SF peak in Q2 2023, while CoStar’s Q1 2026 Inland Empire report puts asking rents about 23% below peak. Yet CoStar also notes asking rents remain roughly 15% above five years ago and have more than doubled over the past decade. This guide covers the quoting convention, the current published data, the full cost stack beyond base rent, and the levers tenants are using to sign below asking.

How Warehouse Rent Is Quoted in Southern California ($/SF/Month NNN)

Southern California industrial rents are quoted in dollars per square foot per month on a triple-net (NNN) basis. Kidder Mathews, CBRE, Colliers, and CoStar all publish Inland Empire rents monthly — the $0.97–$1.08/SF NNN figures above — while Lee & Associates publishes annually ($12.46/SF/year for IE West in Q2 2026, roughly $1.04/month). To convert, multiply monthly by 12: Kidder’s $0.98/SF/month equals $11.76/SF/year. National reports usually quote annually, so confirm the convention before comparing markets.

The NNN part matters just as much as the number. A triple-net quote is base rent only — the tenant reimburses the landlord’s property taxes, building insurance, and common-area maintenance (CAM) on top of it. If lease structures are new territory, start with our triple net (NNN) lease guide and gross lease vs net lease comparison, or look up any term in the A–Z CRE glossary.

Inland Empire Warehouse Rents in Q2 2026: The Published Data

Each publisher tracks its own building set and methodology, so the honest way to read Inland Empire warehouse pricing is as a range with named sources — never a single blended number. Here is every current published figure:

Source · Period	Segment	Asking rent (NNN)
Kidder Mathews · Q2 2026	IE market-wide	$0.98/SF/mo (up from $0.96 in Q1; −4.85% YoY)
Colliers · Q2 2026	IE market-wide	$0.99/SF/mo (first sub-$1.00 print since Q3 2021)
NAI Capital · Q2 2026	IE market-wide	$0.97/SF/mo (+2.1% QoQ; −5.8% YoY)
CBRE · Q2 2026	IE Core	$1.08 asking · $1.05 taking (signed deals)
CBRE · Q2 2026	IE West / IE East	$1.17 / $1.03 asking · $1.11 / $0.94 taking
Colliers · Q2 2026	IE West / IE East	$1.09 / $0.91 per SF/mo
Lee & Associates · Q2 2026	IE West	$12.46/SF/year (≈$1.04/mo; down from $12.58 in Q1)
CoStar · Q1 2026	IE overall / logistics / specialized / flex	$1.02 / $0.96 / $1.29 / $1.51 per SF/mo

For broader context, CoStar’s Q1 2026 report notes that including all advertised rate types, Inland Empire market rent averages $12.20/SF/year (about $1.10 monthly), 5–10% above the national average — and the spread widens to roughly 30% for large logistics boxes: 250,000+ SF buildings command near $1.00/SF in the IE versus under $0.75 nationally. CoStar also measured asking-rent growth at −2.4% year over year as of Q1 2026 and reads NNN asking rents as having bottomed in Q1 2025.

The Full Cost Stack: Base Rent + NNN + Everything Else

1. Base rent

Base rent is the quoted NNN rate times your square footage. It is the number brokers advertise and publishers track — and only the first layer of your occupancy cost.

2. NNN pass-throughs (taxes, insurance, CAM)

Under a triple-net lease you also reimburse the property’s real estate taxes, building insurance, and CAM charges. No brokerage publishes an Inland Empire-specific NNN expense load, so treat any specific dollar figure you hear with care — national lease-education rules of thumb put industrial NNN add-ons at roughly $1–$4/SF/year (CAM alone around $0.50–$1.50/SF/year, per WareCRE’s national guidance), but those are national generalizations, not IE market data. The honest move is to request the property’s actual expense history. One California nuance: under Prop 13, property tax follows assessed value — a recently sold building typically carries a heavier tax pass-through than one held for decades.

3. A worked example (showing the math)

4. Asking vs effective: what tenants actually pay

Sticker prices overstate real deals right now. CoStar’s Q1 2026 report pegs effective rental rates at up to 30% below asking depending on location, size, and vintage, and notes landlords commonly offer one to several months of free rent on new, larger leases of five years or longer. Two CoStar-tracked examples: Hanchett Paper leased a 223,000 SF Fontana building on a six-year term with four months free at a $1.08/SF net starting rate, and WECRO took a 60,000 SF Jurupa Valley building on a 28-month term with four months free up front. Tenant-improvement allowances are also on the table in 2026, though no publisher prints an IE average — negotiate TI deal-by-deal.

What Drives Warehouse Rent Differences in the Inland Empire

Per CoStar’s Q1 2026 market commentary, five factors explain most of the spread between a $0.90 building and a $1.20 building:

1. Port and airport proximity. West IE cities closer to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — and the I-10 / I-15 / SR-60 freight spine and Ontario airport — command premiums; rents step down as you move east.
2. Building size. CoStar’s Q1 2026 availability by segment: 250,000–500,000 SF buildings are over 17% available; 500,000 SF–1M SF near 15%; 100,000–250,000 SF above 13%; 50,000–100,000 SF around 10%; and buildings under 50,000 SF are tightest at roughly 7%. Small and mid-bay space is scarcer and holds pricing; big-box is the cheapest per SF and the most negotiable.
3. Building spec. Modern high-clear-height, high-power logistics buildings maintain high occupancy because comparable product is nearly impossible to build closer to the ports on today’s land constraints, per CoStar. Dock-door counts, trailer parking, secured yard, and power capacity all move the rate.
4. Vintage. Older buildings are being vacated as tenants trade up to new supply — aging product must price against that.
5. Direct vs sublease. Sublease space trades at a discount of more than 20% versus directly listed space, per CoStar.

West IE vs East IE: The Premium, Quantified

Measure (Q2 2026)	IE West	IE East
Asking rent — CBRE	$1.17/SF/mo	$1.03/SF/mo
Taking rent (signed deals) — CBRE	$1.11/SF/mo	$0.94/SF/mo
Asking rent — Colliers	$1.09/SF/mo (flat two quarters)	$0.91/SF/mo
Vacancy — CBRE	5.9%	9.0%

Lee & Associates’ IE West office adds detail on the tighter half of the market: Q2 2026 IE West vacancy of 5.16% (down from 6.09% in Q1), 12-month net absorption of +2,555,833 SF, and 4.1M SF under construction on a 373.9M SF IE West inventory. CoStar’s read on the split: rents are higher in West IE cities closer to the ports, East-side rents have fallen more severely, and new construction remains concentrated in the Airport Area cities of Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, and Fontana because of port and rail connectivity. Tenants chasing the deepest discounts look east; tenants buying supply-chain speed pay the West IE premium.

Is 2026 the Bottom? Vacancy, Demand, and Supply

Vacancy depends on whose ruler you use. In Q2 2026, CBRE measured IE Core vacancy at 7.4%, Kidder Mathews at 7.6% direct (8.6% total), Colliers at 7.8% — its first quarterly improvement in over a year — Cushman & Wakefield and NAI Capital both at 8.8%, and Savills at 9.7%. CoStar’s Q1 2026 report had vacancy at 8.6% with availability at 12.2%, a 13-year high, after nearly 60M SF of new supply delivered since 2023 (over a quarter of it still available). Attribute the number to its publisher; never blend them.

Demand is setting records even with vacancy elevated. CBRE reports new leasing activity of 15.5M SF in Q2 2026, 12% above the prior record of 13.9M SF set in Q1; Colliers counts 16.7M SF of gross activity — the highest quarterly total on record and 49% above the 10-year average of 11.2M SF; NAI Capital tallies 31.0M SF leased in the first half, up 5.6% year over year. The comps are institutional-scale: Medline Industries took 1,020,657 SF at Perris Logistics Center North in May 2026 (per Kidder Mathews), and Lee & Associates tracked a 1,286,569 SF Hillwood lease-up in Fontana plus Walmart’s 656,661 SF lease in Jurupa Valley in Q2.

Supply is collapsing underneath that demand. CBRE counts 6.2M SF under construction in Q2 2026 — down 41.3% from a year earlier — while CoStar’s Q1 2026 figure of 10.3M SF equals just 1.3% of inventory (versus 1.8% nationally), down from a 45.8M SF high-water mark in 2022. Construction starts fell to 9M SF in 2025 from a 34M SF peak in 2022, and CoStar projects deliveries could drop below 10M SF in 2026. Regulation is tightening supply further: California’s AB 98 warehouse setback rules took effect for projects commencing January 1, 2026, and Rialto declared a warehouse approval moratorium (per Apex CRE Signal Radar, citing the San Bernardino County Sentinel), while CoStar notes Beaumont, Moreno Valley, and Fontana have recently rejected industrial proposals.

The demand backdrop cuts both ways. The Port of Long Beach posted its busiest year ever in 2025 at 9.9M TEU, and the combined San Pedro Bay ports expected 18.5–19M TEU in 2026 despite tariff headwinds (per Apex CRE Signal Radar, citing Semafor and CNBC). On the risk side, Inland Empire trade and transportation employment shed 26,000 jobs in 2025 amid tariff uncertainty (per the same radar brief, citing CalMatters). CoStar’s house view nets it out: vacancy crests in 2026 and declines thereafter, and asking rents — having found a floor — are forecast to rise again as completions slow. In plain terms, 2026 is likely the bottom of the tenant’s-market window.

Owners and investors are reading the same signals. Kidder Mathews reports Q2 2026 IE industrial sales averaging $191.56/SF at a 6.0% cap rate; NAI Capital’s first-half tally shows $1.64B in dollar volume, up 75.3% year over year, at 5.8% average cap rates. Institutional conviction is visible in deals like Walmart’s $111.5M ($220/SF) purchase of a 507,000 SF Riverside business park in March 2026 (per Apex CRE Signal Radar, citing Commercial Real Estate Direct).

Negotiation Levers for Inland Empire Warehouse Tenants

1. Negotiate off taking rates, not asking rates. CBRE’s Q2 2026 data shows signed deals clearing below sticker — $1.05 vs $1.08 in the Core, $1.11 vs $1.17 in the West, $0.94 vs $1.03 in the East — and CoStar pegs effective rates at up to 30% below asking on the right deal.
2. Ask for free rent — landlords expect it. Per CoStar, one to several months free is common on new, larger leases of five years or longer; both of the CoStar-tracked examples above (Fontana and Jurupa Valley) landed four months free. Longer terms buy more concession.
3. Price the sublease market before you sign direct. Sublease space is about 19% of total IE availability and trades more than 20% below direct space, per CoStar — roughly 40 buildings offer sublets of 50,000–200,000 SF and another 30 offer 200,000+ SF, typically at $1.00–$1.50/SF. Example: 3950 Airport Dr in Ontario, a 414,000 SF building, was asking $1.05/SF NNN as a sublease in Q1 2026.
4. Use size-segment leverage. Big-box space (250,000–500,000 SF) is over 17% available per CoStar — maximum negotiating room. Sub-50,000 SF buildings sit near 7% availability: expect less movement and move decisively when a good small building lists.
5. Mind the calendar. CoStar forecasts rents rising as vacancy crests in 2026 — and warns that longer-term tenants still face significant rent hikes at expiration because of the 2021–22 spike. Renewing early or extending now can lock the trough.
6. Get representation. Our step-by-step guide to how to lease commercial property covers the process, and the Inland Empire industrial market hub tracks current conditions and listings.

Inland Empire Warehouse Cost FAQ

How much does it cost to lease a 10,000 square foot warehouse in the Inland Empire?

At Kidder Mathews’ Q2 2026 Inland Empire average of $0.98 per square foot per month NNN, a 10,000 SF warehouse runs about $9,800 per month in base rent, or $117,600 per year. Triple-net pass-throughs — property taxes, building insurance, and common-area maintenance — are billed on top of that base rent, so budget above the sticker rate. This is an illustrative calculation, not a quote.

What does NNN mean in an Inland Empire warehouse rent quote?

NNN (triple net) means the quoted rate is base rent only, and the tenant reimburses the landlord for the property’s three “nets” — property taxes, building insurance, and common-area maintenance — on top of it. Southern California industrial rents are quoted per square foot per month on an NNN basis, so a $0.98 quote means $0.98/SF/month before pass-throughs.

Are Inland Empire warehouse rents going up or down in 2026?

Both, depending on the window. Year over year, rents are still down — Kidder Mathews reports Q2 2026 asking rents 4.85% below a year earlier, and NAI Capital reports a 5.8% annual decline. Quarter over quarter, they ticked up: Kidder’s average rose from $0.96 to $0.98/SF/month and NAI Capital measured a 2.1% quarterly increase. CoStar’s Q1 2026 house view is that asking rents have found a floor and are forecast to rise as construction deliveries slow.

Is warehouse space cheaper in the East Inland Empire than the West?

Yes. In Q2 2026, Colliers put West IE asking rents at $1.09/SF/month versus $0.91 in the East, and CBRE reported $1.17 asking in IE West versus $1.03 in IE East. The West commands a premium because of port and rail proximity, per CoStar, while East-side rents have fallen more severely from the peak — which is where tenants find the deepest discounts.

What is the vacancy rate for Inland Empire warehouse space in 2026?

It depends on the publisher’s methodology, so always check whose number you are reading. In Q2 2026, CBRE measured IE Core vacancy at 7.4% (5.9% West, 9.0% East), Kidder Mathews reported 7.6% direct vacancy (8.6% total), Colliers 7.8%, Cushman & Wakefield and NAI Capital both 8.8%, and Savills 9.7%. Availability — all space being marketed — runs higher, at 12.4%–12.9% per NAI Capital and Kidder Mathews.

How do Inland Empire warehouse rents compare to Los Angeles and the national average?

The Inland Empire remains roughly 34% cheaper than Los Angeles for industrial occupiers — about $11.65/SF/year versus $15.96 in LA, per Apex CRE Signal Radar market intelligence (Q1 2026). Against the country, the IE is a premium market: CoStar puts IE market rent at $12.20/SF/year across all rate types, 5–10% above the national average, with big-box space over 250,000 SF commanding near $1.00/SF/month versus under $0.75 nationally.

Are landlords offering free rent on Inland Empire warehouse leases?

Yes. Per CoStar’s Q1 2026 Inland Empire report, landlords commonly offer one to several months of free rent on new, larger leases of five years or longer. Recent examples include a 223,000 SF Fontana lease signed with four months free at a $1.08/SF net starting rate and a 60,000 SF Jurupa Valley lease with four months free on a 28-month term. Sublease space trades at a further discount of more than 20% versus direct space.

Sources: CoStar Inland Empire Industrial Market Report (Q1 2026); CBRE Inland Empire Industrial Figures (Q2 2026); Kidder Mathews, Colliers, NAI Capital, Cushman & Wakefield, Lee & Associates, and Savills Inland Empire industrial reports (Q2 2026); Apex CRE Signal Radar market intelligence (Q1 2026). Every figure is attributed to its publisher and period in-text; publisher methodologies differ and are never averaged. Rent figures are asking rates unless noted and do not constitute a quote or offer.

Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM · Associate Broker · DRE #01422904 · Apex Real Estate Services · 3750 E. Florida Ave Suite A, Hemet, CA 92544 · (951) 977-3251 · Joseph Lombera, Commercial Agent + CMO, DRE #01971957. Reviewed by Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM (DRE #01422904). Last updated: August 19, 2026.