No question, Manhattan's office market remains strong — but the month of November tells two stories.
On one hand, availability has tightened to the lowest level since November 2020, falling to a rate of 14.2 percent and marking the 21st consecutive month the category dropped, according to a market report from Colliers.
However, clearly, activity is starting to pull back. The November signings of 2.99 million square feet marked a 17.9 percent plunge month-over-month or a drop of nearly an eighth percent when put in a year-over-year comparison. Notably, leasing in Downtown was cut nearly in half to 356,553 square feet compared with 686,610 square feet in October.
But even with the big decline in activity, Colliers said that Manhattan's office sector is still on pace for more than 40 million square feet of signings, which would be the best year of leasing since 2019.
Millennium Management posted the largest signing in November, thanks to its 438,000 square foot extension in Midtown. Rippling and Robinhood had the two next largest deals, taking 132,693 square feet and 125,392 square feet, respectively.
Also, plenty of other encouraging signs were found in November that should keep office landlords bullish.
Rents averaged $75.40 per square foot, which is the highest seen in the market since October 2023. Also, the 0.3 percent boost from October 2025 represented the sixth straight month of increases. Meanwhile, Downtown was the only submarket to see rents contract in November.
Also, demand continued to remain positive, with November generating +510,000 square feet. That brings the total over the past four years to +15.48 million square feet.
Looking ahead, the question remains: Does leasing momentum in Manhattan's office sector pick back up next month and into 2026? Either way, there's no denying the strong recovery of the market since the pandemic began.
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