AUSTIN—Rental rates have reached a new high-water mark in the Austin market, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield | Oxford Commercial (CWOC).

It's a key finding in the second quarter market report from CWOC, which has been tracking the rental and vacancy rates in the Austin market for more than two decades.

“The Austin office market continues to operate in peak conditions. Office buildings are selling at historic prices, available spaces are quoting historic lease rates and occupancy rates remain higher than ever before,” Melissa Totten, associate vice president with CWOC, says. “New construction continues to dominate the skyline, as many buildings are spoken for, prior to their respective completions.”

Such pre-leasing activity leads to new developments doing little to alleviate the declining vacancy rates currently being experienced, Totten says.

The overall office vacancy rate declined to 9.7 percent, compared to 10.2 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2014. The average full-service asking rate increased to $32.83 per square foot, up 12.4 percent from this time last year. The CBD, or central business district, saw the greatest gains – growing to $47.80 per square foot, up 10.6 percent from the end of the second quarter last year.

Asking rental rates are the highest rate CWOC has ever recorded since it started tracking the stats in the early 1990s. The climb is attributed to 1.08 million square feet being absorbed during the first half of 2015, soaring 61.9 percent since the end of 2014. The 1.08-million figure year compares to 667,901 square feet absorbed in the first half of last year.

Large and big-name technology companies are accounting for much of the demand. Major leases completed during the second quarter including Apple's 217,490-square-foot lease at Capital Ridge, SolarWinds' 117,866-square-foot lease in the Summit at Lantana and Oracle's 64,227-square-foot lease at 7700 Parmer. Those tech firms join Indeed and Google, which leased large chunks of space in the first quarter.

“The impact and ripple effect of these tech titans is being felt in a particularly strong way downtown and west Austin,” says Brian Butterfield, senior vice president with CWOC.