The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant dislocation across North American commercial real estate markets. Office demand declined substantially over the year with leasing volume down 40% nationally from 2019, with larger declines in dense urban cores including New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Available sublease space has increased by 52% across all markets as organizations look to shed real estate in order to reduce costs. The rapid addition of sublease space is pushing availability up across all markets (20.8% U.S.-wide) and tenant options are plentiful.
The pandemic has had a mixed impact on law firm real estate trends over the course of 2020, but there are some clear signs of resiliency in the sector. Further, new opportunities are emerging given the rapid softening of market leasing conditions. The Legal Tenant analyzed law firm transactions over 20,000 square feet (sf) across key U.S. markets. to share insight on activity throughout 2020.