Despite an increase in leasing activity, space availability remains at a record high, keeping tenants in an advantageous position
Availability remained relatively unchanged over the last three quarters. Since the beginning of 2021, availability increased from 20.4% to 21.0%, but has declined 10 basis points (bps) in the last quarter. Sublease availability hit a high at the end of 2020 with 3.4 million square feet (msf) on the market which, over the past year, has dipped slightly to 3.3 msf. Leasing activity was robust to end the year as a total of 3.0 msf was leased this quarter, representing a 52.0% increase compared to Q4 2020 and is above the five-year quarterly average of 2.2 msf. Still, the annual total remains 16.1% below pre-pandemic levels. The government sector was the driving force behind demand accounting for 67.0% of activity by square footage and sizable leases were signed by both local and federal government agencies.