AUSTIN—More and more tech firms--not just Apple--are eying Austin for office space, according to a new report released by CBRE Group Inc.

Businesses looking for office space in the nation's hottest tech markets should expect to pay a premium, says the report, which analyzed the top 30 tech cities across the U.S. and Canada. The report showed an aggregate rent premium of 11 percent across all 30 markets—a number that jumps significantly higher in the hottest tech submarkets. Austin ranks third among the top tech markets, behind San Francisco and Phoenix, for its significant growth in high-tech jobs—33 percent from 2012-2014.

“The area's booming IT industry and a recent surge in development will continue to fuel the expansion of Austin in the coming years,” Gary Goodman, senior vice president acquisitions at Passco Cos., told GlobeSt.com. “In fact high tech employment is up 30 percent since 2010, contributing to the area's low unemployment rate of only 3.5 percent, which is far below the current U.S. national average,” 

Austin's two notable tech markets, Northwest Austin and the Central Business District, are on different ends of the spectrum. Austin's high-tech occupiers have long tended to cluster in the Northwest suburban market, which recorded an 11.8 percent growth in average asking rents from Q2 2013 to Q2 2015. However, the average asking rate in the Northwest was 2.4 percent below the Austin metro-wide rate of $31.33 per year at the end of Q2 2015. The Austin CBD, which has more recently emerged as a high-tech submarket with more than 100 high-tech companies, has a rent premium of 28.6 percent.

“The tech ecosystem in downtown Austin is different than any other local office submarket and it continues to flourish, despite the higher cost of entry,” says Nate Stricklen, senior vice president at CBRE. “A vibrant landscape of high-tech users is developing in our urban core thanks to a plethora of resources, including access to funding and accelerator groups like Capital Factory, TechStars and Dreamit Ventures, quality tech talent and flexible co-working solutions like WeWork and the recently announced TechSpace.

“Walkability, new hotels and event venues, live music, great food and notable events like SXSW and ATX Startup Crawl are all drivers supporting the continued demand to be in downtown Austin.”

In many leading tech markets, the sector is even more dominant—high-tech companies accounted for 63 percent of major leasing activity in Austin through Q2 2015, second only to Silicon Valley with 88 percent.

“A relative lower cost of living, attractive labor pool— driven partially by The University of Texas and other area universities—business-friendly climate and rapidly maturing network of capital sources will drive continued growth in Austin's tech sector. We expect to see more tech firms relocate to Austin or grow and expand existing operations here,” says Erin Morales, senior vice president at CBRE.