Manhattan Office Market Posts Best Month Since Last July
The Midtown South submarket performed best, followed by Downtown and Midtown.
Manhattan’s office market posted its strongest month of leasing since July 2020 in July, but it’s not out of the woods yet.
New research from Colliers reveals that despite leasing 2.35 million square feet of space last month—the third consecutive monthly increase for the market, and a 15.2% increase over June figures—Manhattan’s leasing activity was still nearly 35% below pre-pandemic levels, when average monthly volume totaled 3.58 million square feet.
The Midtown South submarket performed best, followed by Downtown and Midtown.
But the news is not all good. The availability rate in Manhattan remains at a record high of 17.1%, according to Colliers, and after three months of supply tightening, sublet availability hit its largest post-pandemic total at 21.16 million square feet.
Meanwhile, asking office rents were the lowest since 2017, clocking in at $72.72 per square foot. The average asking rent average has decreased by 8.5% since the pandemic’s onset in March 2020. Asking rents were highest in Midtown, at $78.95 psf, followed by Midtown South at $73.12 psf and Downtown at $58.80 psf. Downtown’s asking rents are now at their lowest monthly amount since 2016.