"Going forward in 2008 and 2009, I think you are going to see subleasing becoming more prevalent," Elcock tells GlobeSt.com. While the EVP does not anticipate anything close to the "chaotic" results that occurred after 2001 when millions of sf of sublease space cascaded into the mix following the technology sector bust, Elcock says a slowing economy and cost-cutting measures will require firms to take a hard look at how to make fallow quarters fiscally useful. "Subleasing really is a byproduct of the company business plan," Elcock says. "It makes sense for a lot of reasons."

M&G will address the sublease matter in greater depth at its annual market overview next Thursday, says Elcock, who will be among those from the Boston real estate services firm on hand to assess the state of the industry as 2008 kicks into gear. In the meantime, other observers say they are witnessing examples of increased subleasing in select instances, with battered areas such as the home mortgage field seeming especially vulnerable over the near term. DTZ FHO Partners broker Sean Teague says he has not witnessed any up tick of subleasing in the south suburban market that he covers, but predicts some firms will ultimately take that route. "It's not a question of if, but when," he tells GlobeSt.com.

Richards Barry Joyce & Partners has watched office sublease levels drained substantially, from a peak of 11.2 million sf in the first quarter of 2004 to 4.2 million sf at year-end 2007 for its review of 171.2 million sf. M&G puts the mark at 4.2 million sf in its survey of 198.9 million sf, including flex product. RBJ VP of research Brendan Carroll says his firm's results indicate that sublease is such a small percentage of the available space that landlords are no longer forced to compete on pricing as they did in the days of bloated sublease offerings. "We're very far away" from landlords being impacted, says Carroll. In Billerica, for example, 54% of the available space in the first quarter of 2004 was sublease, while that figure today has plummeted to just 6%.