Q4 Tenant's Guide Predicts Rents in Cambridge Market to Drop

CAMBRIDGE, MA-The declining rents and rising vacancies that have plagued most of the Greater Boston market over the past year are slowly starting to make their way into what was once considered the healthiest submarket in the area.

The Cambridge market has been a tale of two cities ever since the recent recession with an office market that was more vulnerable to the vagaries of the economy and a thriving biotech market. But recent numbers indicate that the office market is going to experience further setbacks that will be evidenced in declining rents while the biotech market’s struggle to find financing could be reflected in its ability to fill its space.

According to CRESA Partners’ tenant’s guide for the fourth quarter of the year, 1.7 million sf of direct space is available in the Cambridge office market, with an additional 570,000 sf of sublease space. Of that sublease total, approximately 70% has a term of three years or less.