Rents will fall as financial firms cut jobs

According to Colliers
International, financial firms typically take up a third of the office space
in Manhattan, and because the city’s Independent Budget Office expects
firms to lose 82,300 jobs between 2008 and 2011, landlords will
have to work hard to keep tenants. Office rents have already fallen 21
percent from their peak of $64.13 per square foot in the second quarter of
2008, according to Barry Gosin, CEO of Newmark Knight Frank. Gosin
expects rents to fall between 30 and 35 percent from the peak, and said
available space for rent could rise to 13 percent.