Analysts from the real estate brokerage firm Colliers International are convinced that 2010 will be an excellent year for demand for office space in New York’s central business districts.
Indeed, the company is urging any firms considering their options regarding Manhattan office space to make enquiries early to ensure they don’t “miss the market”, with vacancy rates set to fall sharply and prices expected to increase considerably over the course of next year.
The positive outlook on New York’s most prominent office space locations is based partly on the strength of the global economic recovery of late and, to some extent, on the notion that many international businesses want to build their presence in the US, beginning with the Big Apple.
Colliers executive Peter Kozel is quoted by Bloomberg as saying: “Cash balances and corporate liquidity are almost at an all-time high. That’s enormous potential energy just waiting to be released, and New York City is enormously tied into the global economy.”
Reflecting on its own data and interpretation of New York’s current commercial property dynamics, Colliers has suggested that the cost of renting office space in Manhattan and other areas of the city could increase by as much as ten per cent during 2011.
Colliers International is based in Seattle, Washington and has office space of its own in a total of 480 different locations worldwide, including London, New York, Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.
Meanwhile, a mid-October report from another real estate analysis firm, Cushman & Wakefield, found that office leasing activity across the US increased in the third quarter of this year, while vacancy rates declined.
Editor’s notes: In 2023, following the pandemic and the slow return-to-office wave across Manhattan, office leasing activity in 2022 was 30 per cent lower than it was in the previous year.
The vacancy rate in Manhattan was just below 17 per cent, and the average asking rent for offices stood at just over $75 per square foot. However, super prime office space rental rates reached $111.77 per square foot per year.