SAN DIEGO—Local office tenants with expiring leases are likely to have signed their last lease near the bottom of the market, but rental rates have increased more than 17% countywide since then, JLL's senior research analyst Josh Brant tells GlobeSt.com. According to Lee & Associates, average asking lease rates in the region moved up in Q3 across all building classes to $29.36 per square foot, a .3% increase for the period. Class-A rents slipped $.39 to $36.77, but in UTC, where the Irvine Company just delivered its new office tower, the average asking lease rate has topped $45 per square foot, and class-B asking rates stood at $27.77, up $.21 for the quarter and $1.83 year-over-year. We spoke exclusively with Brant about office-lease sticker shock and what he thinks the outcome will be.

GlobeSt.com: What's behind the sticker shock that office tenants will be experiencing once their leases expire?

Brant: The last recession pushed office rents down significantly. In the overall San Diego County office market, rental rates last bottomed out four years ago. The most common length for an office lease is three to five years. So, if you are an office tenant with a lease that's about to expire, there's a good chance that you signed your last lease near the bottom of the market. In the past four years, countywide office rental rates have increased more than 17% on average. But, some areas and sectors have felt this increase more than others. Rental rates in UTC have increased about 44%, the greatest increase in rental rates of any local submarket over the past four years. Also, countywide class-A office rents increased 23.9% during that time, versus a 14.1% increase in class-B rates.