Los Angeles has seen an uptick in sublease space due to ongoing restrictions and workers continuing to work remotely.
This is the overall theme for the office industry across most major markets, particularly as companies opt for permanent remote working policies.
According to CoStar, commercial real estate data firm, there was 9 million square feet of available sublease space in Los Angeles County, 3.5 million of which was in the city’s Westside. This is compared to the 5.4 million of available space at the same time last year.
The research revealed that while there is undoubtedly an increased amount of sublease space all over the city, the Westside’s tech startup community may have caused it to become an outlier.
In fact, the report found that tech companies accounted for 28% of all sublease space in the city.
However, LA is generally in line or seeing less available inventory than other major markets. For instance, San Francisco saw 8.2% of available office inventory compared to LA’s 3%.
“When you look at the office cycle until the downturn, you had three categories that were creating occupancy gains: tech, media and coworking,” said Ryan Patap, Group Director of Analytics at CoStar. “I do think we’re lucky to have entertainment as a driver in this city.”
