NEW YORK CITY-Embracing the fact that its third-quarter briefing was held on Halloween, Colliers International predicted Thursday that 2013 will show itself to have been a “treat” by year-end. Total transaction volume for the year has a chance of exceeding $20 billion, making it one of the largest office property sales years ever—in aggregate value—second only to 2007, at $30.3 billion. Leasing appears on pace to come in at 26,000 square feet by the close of the fourth quarter, and rents don't seem ready to fall just yet, according to Joseph Harbert, president, eastern region.

“After the second quarter's blow-out performance with 9.6 million square feet of completed transactions, it was widely expected that the pace of leasing would slow in the third quarter, which it did,” said Harbert. “However, at 6.3 million square feet, the level of leasing activity was well within the normal range. Moreover, there are indications that other large leases are very close to signing. We're not seeing mega deals, but we're still seeing large ones,” noted Harbert.

In the area Colliers calls Midtown North, leasing fell a bit from the third quarter of last year—from 3.9 million square feet to 3.1 million square feet—but the pace is going strong already in the fourth quarter, with total leasing in the subdistrict of 1.5 million square feet during October.