Tonight:
9°c
New York office rentals stagger
30.09.08
Manhattan office leasing has fallen to a near-record low in the third quarter, amid the financial meltdown.
Vacancy rates rose 0.7% to 8.9%, according to New York property brokerage Studley.
The firm forecasts that more than 20% of financial sector jobs will vanish before the crisis ends and that has made leasing offices the lowest priority for most firms.
Leases were signed on about 5.1 million sq ft of offices in the third quarter – 32% below historic averages and 22% down on the second quarter.
The market has not been this slow since the fourth quarter of 2002 when 5.05 million sq ft was leased.
Average rents in Manhattan rose 1.3% to $70.20 (£39) a sq ft. Most of that was due to the addition of 11 Times Square, a 40-storey, 1.1 million sq-ft skyscraper under construction at Eighth Avenue and West 42nd Street, according to analyst Steven Coutts.
Without that in the listings, market rents would have fallen 0.9% after a 2.2% fall in the second quarter — the first market decline in three years.
