Yet another gloomy assessment of the state of the U.S. office property market has emerged, this time from Newmark. Even some once-hopeful signs of life in certain sectors now seem less hopeful, while overall leasing activity continues to slow and access to capital remains hard to come by.

The ray of light in the gloom has been the "office-using sector", especially technology, advertising, media and information companies, which Newmark says drove much of the leasing activity over the past two years. National office-using employment is currently 6.3% above December 2019 figures, and continues to expand. "However, in the year-to-date, technology companies have accounted for just 8.7% of leasing activity, down from 37% in 2022," Newmark reported.

Another segment of the office market that has been performing relatively well is Class A assets. "While Class A leasing activity as a percentage of inventory is pointing downward in the second quarter of 2023, it still exceeds the national average by 20 basis points," Newmark noted. However, it cautioned, that is below the 40 basis points average achieved during the previous 12 months. "The Class A advantage appears to be eroding on the margins," Newmark commented.