According to CBRE, Manhattan office leasing activity in November was led by Ropes & Gray’s commitment of 429,342 square feet at 1285 Ave. of the Americas. This brought the total leasing activity for the month to 1.82 million square feet, which is a 10% increase from the five-year monthly average of 1.65 million square feet.
This marks the eighth consecutive month that leasing volume has surpassed the five-year average and year-to-date leasing activity through November totaled at an impressive figure of 20.75 million square feet – a significant increase of 29% from last year.
Renewals also played a role in this strong performance with a total of755,000 square feet leased in November and bringing YTD renewals to8 .31millionsquarefeet.
The availability rate remained unchanged from last month at18 .9%, but showed improvement compared to last year witha decreaseof120 basis points accordingtoCBRE.Netabsorptionwaspositiveat199 ,000squarefeetinNovemberandtheYTDtotalreachedanimpressive5 .16million
squarefeet .
Despite these positive numbers,theaverageaskingrentremainedessentiallyflatmonth-over-monthat$77 .97persquarefoot.However,itdidshowaslightincreaseof1%comparedtothepreviousyear.Thesubleaseavailabilityratedeclinedby10basispointsfromlastmonthto4 .2%,withtheaverageaskingrentremainingunchangedfromoneyearagoat$57 .
89persquarefoot .
Overall,this report shows that Manhattan officeleasingcontinuestooutperformthefive-yearaveragewithstrongactivityandlowervacancyrates.This trend is expected to continue as businesses adapt and recover from challenges posed by COVID-19.
