Los Angeles’ Office Availability Continues To Rise

A new report from Savills revealed that the amount of available space has reached 51 million square feet in Los Angeles, the highest mark since 2009.

Office leasing also totaled around 2 million square feet during the first quarter of this year, nearly half the amount signed during the same period last year.

This spike in availability seems to be caused by the stream of sublease space, which has grown by 91% since the beginning of the pandemic.

Despite the growing amount of empty space, asking rents have increased by 3% in the last quarter. But Savills says that current asking rents are misleading since landlords will need to be more assertive when trying to secure tenants.

The amount of tenant tours also increased during the first quarter as vaccines became more readily available to the public.

However, California has had some of the country’s strongest pandemic restrictions and continues to recommend office workers operate remotely.

California’s biggest tech companies are preparing to open back up in the coming months though. For instance, Google has announced they plan to bring employees back into the office later this month.