Manhattan’s overall office vacancy rate has reached a five-year high,
according to Cushman & Wakefield’s third-quarter commercial real
estate market report. Vacancies reached 11.1 percent by the end of
third-quarter 2009, marking a 0.6 percent increase from a quarter
earlier. The amount of space leased year-to-date totaled 11.3 million square
feet, down 27.8 percent from the same time last year when leasing
volume was 15.7 million square feet. This decline in leasing activity comes even as average asking rents
dropped to $57.08 per square foot, a 5.2 percent decline from
the second quarter. While sublease activity has been steadily increasing throughout the
year, the third quarter saw a reduction in inventory to 11.1 million
square feet from 11.4 million square feet in second-quarter 2009.
Still, 12 of the 54 lease transactions totaling 50,000 square feet so
far this year, as of the third quarter, were subleases. TRD [more]