Los Angeles has seen a significant increase in its supply of sublease office space. According to a report from JLL, the sublease supply in L.A. has increased 20% since the start of the pandemic. During the pandemic, metros like Los Angeles with a high concentration of technology companies have seen an increase in sublease space.

"If you look at the major metropolitan areas across the country that have seen the largest uptick in sublease activity, they tend to have a substantive technology-based tenant base," Josh Wrobel, managing director at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. "As you can imagine, technology companies tend to experience larger volatility than traditional industries and as such, some of the technology companies have land-banked space for growth prior to the crisis and when you combine land-banking and an economic downturn, you end up with an even greater impact to the sublease market than you'd see during a traditional recession in technology driven economies."

Luckily, L.A.'s office market was strong entering this recession, and Wrobel believes that the market can absorb the amount of sublease supply without a significant impact on the direct office lease space. "To date, Los Angeles sublease inventory—2.8% sublease availability—sits over 1.5 million square feet less than the peak of the Great Recession—3.6% sublease availability—and the impact of the new sublease space has yet to be felt in a substantive way given the general lack of activity in the market due to the crisis holding pattern," he says.