Manhattan’s Office Leases Are Climbing, But Availability Is Still An Issue

New data from Colliers International shows that Manhattan’s office leasing market saw another increase last month, but that its asking rents have dipped from September.

Manhattan’s office leasing market has seen continued improvement according to October data from Colliers International.

According to the data, 2.7 million square feet of office space was leased in October, a 10.8% increase from September and a 52.9% increase from October of last year.

While leasing has incrementally improved over the past year, office market metrics are trending down on a year-over-year basis.

For instance, asking rents in Manhattan fell from $76.20 one year ago to $73.66 last month, while availability grew to 17% from 12.9% in October of 2020.

“Demand is picking up but there’s all these massive blocks of supply that are still being added to the market,” said Franklin Wallach, a senior managing director for research at Colliers.

While some buildings hitting the market have increased asking rents in certain areas, Class B and Class C spaces are playing a role in driving rent down in other submarkets.

“There are still large blocks that we’re expecting to enter the availability rate in late 2021 and early 2022, unless there’s some significant leasing activity that would take those spaces off the market,” said Wallach. “Will there be strong enough demand to have positive absorption and tightening availability?”