BOSTON-The office market in Greater Boston is ending the year on a high note, as the sector's 13.4% vacancy rate at the end of the fourth quarter is the lowest in five years. The findings are part of officeSTATus – Winter 2014, a quarterly report from Transwestern | RBJ.
“The positive quarter in the office market occurred in conjunction with a period of robust stock market activity and optimism for the tech-oriented Greater Boston economy and employment markets,” says Brendan Carroll, SVP at Transwestern | RBJ. “The only downside of the strong results is that certain geographies have very tight space constraints, with a commensurate impact on tenant choice."
An absorption of more than 800,000 square feet of office space drove the vacancy decline from the 13.8% seen in Q3. Boston's CBD saw vacancy drop below 10% to 9.6%, with an even lower 5.3% rate in the peripheral Central Boston areas, not including Financial District, Back Bay and Seaport District.
The Cambridge submarket saw vacancy fall to 5.7%, its lowest level since George W. Bush's first few months as president. That compares to 8.3% in Q3.
Suburban markets in the region also were very active, the report states. Class A asking lease rates are now up by double digits in Burlington, Newton, Waltham and Wellesley, as compared to this time last year, due to constraints in class A space.
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