The report singled out Austin, Boston, and San Francisco as cities where technology industry growth is likely to drive up the cost of renting offices, while the energy industry is expected to have a similar impact in Dallas and Oklahoma.
In its report, CBRE describes the US economy as “slowly gaining traction” and predicts that vacancy rates within office space in America will fall back to some extent throughout 2013. Office space vacancy rates reportedly stood at 15.5 per cent across the country at the end of September 2012, down by 1.3 per cent on the figure for Q2 2010.
“Although concerns remain about the recovery in the face of headwinds both at home and abroad, we have seen consistent improvement in broader markets,” said Arthur Jones, senior managing economist for CBRE Econometric Advisors.
“Businesses remain healthy and continue to hire, and we have seen significant improvement in the housing market. As a result, we expect office fundamentals to continue their slow but steady recovery throughout the next year,” he added.
Figures from CBRE on the cost of renting office space released over the summer rated New York’s Midtown district as having the most expensive average office rents in the US. However, the district was scored as having only the world’s 18th most expensive office market, well behind the likes of Hong Kong, the West End of London, and Tokyo.
Editor’s notes: Since 2022, Midtown Manhattan has been reported as one of the world’s top three most expensive locations to rent office space.
A post-pandemic view of the office space markets of various US cities can be found here.