CHICAGO—Tenants within the US office sector became a bit cautious during the winter, but leasing activity rebounded strongly in the second quarter, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield. Net occupancy grew, and nationally, landlords were able to push up rents to a new high. Furthermore, developers have ramped up construction, and experts say they see no sign of overbuilding.
“Construction is finally starting to catch up to absorption,” Ken McCarthy, C&W principal economist and author of the report, tells GlobeSt.com. “But this is still not a construction boom like we've seen in the past.”
In the second quarter, developers finished 16.1 million square feet of new office across the US, the largest amount since 2009. C&W estimates that in 2017 developers will complete more than 71 million square feet of new office space, the most in a single year since 2008. But construction levels remain 30% lower than the peaks recorded for the prior cycle and 60% lower than the records set during the Dotcom bubble.
Continue Reading for Free
Register and gain access to:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
