BOSTON—Boston office vacancy rates decreased for the first time in five years, according to JLL’s Boston Q3 Office Outlook—a combination of tenant expansions, office to residential conversions and strong preleasing in deliveries of new construction helped bolster occupancy numbers.
Here are the key highlights from the JLL report:
- Direct vacancy is down 30 basis points to 17.3%, while total vacancy is down 40 basis points to 21.7%.
- Boston saw the largest share of workers return to office of any major market in the United States over the last four quarters, with office attendance increasing 10.3% during that period according to Placer.ai data.
- Total absorption in the city was +519,354 square feet, marking the largest occupation of space in one quarter in six years (since Q3 2018).
- Looking ahead, new construction and conversations will continue to impact vacancy rates – an additional 20,000 square feet of conversions will be removed from the supply over the next quarter or two, in addition to the current pipeline of 1.75 million square feet under construction in the city at 48.7% preleased, well below the market average of 82% at delivery.
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