NYC Office Demand Peaks at Decade High at the End of the 3rd Quarter
While the pace of New York City’s office market recovery has already been highlighted for surpassing that of the rest of the nation, the latest news delivers another milestone. According to data compiled by online real estate platform Costar, the city “filled nearly 5 million square feet of office space in the third quarter.” Representing the difference between move-ins and move-outs, the quarterly absorption in the 3rd quarter “was more than double the highest quarterly absorption seen the past five years and marked the largest single-quarter gain in the last 10,” rebounding from the negative nearly 11 million-square-foot absorption in the 1st quarter of 2021. Overall nationwide absorption over the past 12 months “turned negative by 3.1 million square feet in contrast to New York City’s positive 7.4 million square feet during the same period. Several reported 100,000-square-foot and larger big block signings of a mix of renewals, leases and subleases kicked off 2025. During the 1st quarter 9 deals totaling roughly 2.9 million square feet were announced, followed by 7 deals totaling roughly 2.4 million square feet in the 2nd quarter. Leasing activity in the 3rd quarter added 10 big block transactions totaling 1.8 million square feet, bringing the year-to-date total to roughly 7.1 million square feet compared to about 5.5 million square feet of big block deals reported during the same period last year.