Myrtle Beach anchors the Grand Strand, a coastal metro that has consistently ranked among the fastest-growing in the Eastern United States, adding permanent residents at a 2.8% annual pace as retirees from the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest trade higher-cost markets for Horry County's combination of low property taxes, no state income tax on Social Security, and year-round coastal access. The economic base has diversified beyond its traditional summer-tourism core, with healthcare employment led by Grand Strand Medical Center and Conway Medical Center growing alongside a construction sector that cannot deliver housing fast enough to satisfy demand from net migration. Transaction volume in 2025 exceeded prior-year levels across all major asset classes, a signal that the bid-ask gap that paralyzed deal flow in 2023-2024 has largely closed.

Myrtle Beach Market Overview: Key Metrics

The Myrtle Beach commercial real estate market in 2026 reflects a market shaped by tourism and hospitality, healthcare, retail trade, construction, education. Here are the key metrics investors and borrowers should know:

  • Multifamily Vacancy: 5.8%, near the national average with healthy absorption
  • Industrial Vacancy: 7.2%, normalizing as speculative development is absorbed
  • Office Vacancy: 14.5%
  • Retail Vacancy: 4.3%
  • Rent Growth: 4.1% year-over-year
  • Job Growth: 2.9%, outpacing the national average
  • Population Growth: 2.8% annually
  • Median Asking Rent: $1,385

Multifamily Outlook in Myrtle Beach

Multifamily vacancy across the Grand Strand sits at 5.8%, tighter than many larger Sun Belt metros, because the pace of household formation from retirees and younger service-sector workers is outrunning deliveries in the submarkets where demand is most acute, particularly Carolina Forest and the Socastee corridor. Effective rent growth of 4.1% annually is the strongest reading since 2022, supported by low homeownership affordability for new arrivals who arrive without local equity to deploy and must rent while they evaluate longer-term housing options. Class B garden-style product in Conway and the Market Common area is generating the strongest value-add interest, with renovation programs targeting $100 to $175 per unit monthly rent lift.

Industrial & Logistics Market

The Myrtle Beach industrial market is genuinely small, roughly 12 million square feet of competitive inventory concentrated along Highway 501, the Conway bypass, and the Loris-Horry County agricultural corridor, which constrains both supply and tenant diversity relative to larger Southeast logistics hubs. Vacancy at 7.2% reflects the absence of large-block distribution tenants rather than weak demand, as local contractors, building supply operators, and light manufacturing users steadily absorb functional flex and warehouse product in the 5,000 to 40,000 square foot range. The opening of Highway 31 extensions and ongoing widening of US-17 has incrementally improved truck access, but the market will remain a tertiary industrial destination with cap rates priced accordingly.

Office & Retail Dynamics

Office demand in Myrtle Beach is almost entirely driven by medical users, insurance and financial planning firms serving the retiree population, and local professional services, with overall vacancy at 14.5% masking near-full occupancy in Class A medical office near the hospital campuses in Conway and along Harrelson Boulevard, alongside elevated vacancy in older suburban suites that cannot compete with newer product. Retail is the most institutionally credible commercial asset class in this market, with vacancy at 4.3% supported by tourist spending that runs well above $6 billion annually across Horry County and by permanent resident growth that is filling grocery-anchored centers and QSR corridors in Carolina Forest and North Myrtle Beach at a pace that keeps absorption ahead of new deliveries.

Financing Landscape in Myrtle Beach

Lender appetite in Myrtle Beach is strongest for stabilized multifamily and grocery-anchored retail, where agency execution and regional bank balance sheet programs provide competitive pricing, while hospitality and seasonal retail carry meaningful lender selectivity given the market's tourism-driven revenue concentration. South Carolina-chartered community banks and credit unions are a significant part of the sub-$10 million deal market, offering local underwriting flexibility that national lenders and CMBS conduits typically cannot match for the Grand Strand's mix of smaller and seasonally variable assets. Life insurance company allocations to Myrtle Beach are limited and deal-size dependent, generally requiring stabilized assets above $15 million with institutional-quality tenancy before a life company program becomes competitive.

For borrowers in the Myrtle Beach area, current commercial mortgage rates range from 5.50% for agency multifamily to higher rates for transitional and value-add projects. Key factors that influence your rate include property type, leverage, sponsor experience, and asset location within the metro.

Top Submarkets to Watch

The Myrtle Beach metro features several distinct submarkets that present unique investment opportunities:

  • Downtown Myrtle Beach
  • Surfside Beach
  • Murrells Inlet
  • Pawleys Island
  • Conway
  • Socastee
  • North Myrtle Beach
  • Loris
  • Horry County
  • Carolina Forest
  • Market Common
  • Grand Strand

Each of these submarkets has distinct characteristics in terms of tenant demand, development activity, and pricing. The top investment corridors in Myrtle Beach include Market Common, Carolina Forest, North Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island.

Investment Outlook: Myrtle Beach 2026

Myrtle Beach enters 2026 with the strongest population growth tailwind of any market its size on the East Coast, and that demographic reality is the single most important underwriting input across every asset class. Retail and multifamily represent the highest-conviction plays, while hospitality investors who can underwrite through seasonal vacancy compression and identify assets with growing off-season demand from the permanent resident base will find cap rates in the 8.00% to 9.75% range that adequately compensate for operational complexity. Industrial and office remain niche strategies for local operators rather than entry points for out-of-market capital seeking scale.

CLS CRE in Myrtle Beach

CLS CRE provides commercial mortgage brokerage services throughout the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area, with access to 1,000+ lenders including banks, life insurance companies, CMBS conduits, agency lenders, debt funds, and credit unions. Whether you're acquiring, refinancing, or developing commercial property in Myrtle Beach, our market expertise and lender relationships help you secure the most competitive terms available.

Explore our financing programs for Myrtle Beach:

Trevor Damyan, Commercial Mortgage Broker
Trevor Damyan
Commercial Mortgage Broker, CLS CRE | CA DRE 02244836

Trevor Damyan is a commercial mortgage broker at Commercial Lending Solutions with a background in structured finance at CBRE and Marcus and Millichap Capital Corporation. He specializes in bridge loans, construction financing, SBA programs, DSCR loans, and complex capital structures for investors and developers across all 50 states.