Office rents may return to peak in 2015

RREEF, Deutsche Bank’s real estate investment management division, predicted that nation-wide commercial rents will re-attain their peak, pre-recession levels by 2015, according to Bloomberg News. Office rents fell 4.9 percent last year, but are expected to pick up steam and grow 5.1 percent in 2013, 7.7 percent in 2014, and 8 percent in 2015. “Net operating income is still moving downward, but when rent growth starts, it really takes off,” head RREEF researcher Alan Billingsley said. The report also forecasted that apartment rents, already increasing as foreclosed homeowners find new residencies, will grow 4 percent this year, and 5 percent in 2012 and 2013. But retail lags behind apartment and office rents, and won’t surpass apartment rent growth until 2014, RREEF found. [Bloomberg]