Houston office market sees higher return-to- office than national average, but availability levels remain high

With recent announcements from companies including Chevron, the return-to-office rate of Houston's office market has steadily risen as COVID-19 fades. According to Kastle Systems, Houston’s office utilization rate in early March of over 52.0% was much higher than the national average of 40.0%. However, this has not immediately translated to a spike in leasing activity as companies continue to take a wait-and-see approach. Many companies that have signed leases during the pandemic, especially last year, have opted to downsize their spaces as they adopted hybrid work strategies early on. With West Texas Intermediate (WTI) recently spiking to over $100 per barrel, the Houston office market is closely watching the oil markets as spiking prices have historically led to higher office space demand from energy companies, engineering firms, and related professional services companies.

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