The pandemic amplified an already hot studio real estate market. Now, filming and production studios are quickly becoming the darling of the Los Angeles real estate market. New research from CBRE shows that strength in the global entertainment market has contributed to a 1.2 million-square-foot pipeline of new studio space development and occupancy of existing spaces has stayed above 95%.

"The demand for filming space reflects a broader demand for content. We have seen content consumption increase rapidly over the last several years, and that growth was accelerated even further during the pandemic," Eric Willett, regional director of research at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. In 2020, digital entertainment revenue increased 31% to $61.8 billion and in March of this year, filming permit applications have increased 107% with a total of 1,125 since January.

It all comes down to content consumption. Last year, there was a substantial increase in consumption while the world was required to stay home. "Viewing minutes in the US and globally are up year-over-year and companies are spending vast sums of money to build out their content libraries as they engage in the streaming war," adds Willett. "The result of all of that is increased demand for the space that is necessary to create all of this content, and of course, L.A. is ground zero for that type of space."