Miami Asking Rents Remain Steady as Office Vacancy Hits Six-and-a-Half Year High

8 Apr, 2010, Miami

Cushman & Wakefield today released first quarter statistics for the Miami office market that show asking rents have remained stable despite the city's vacancy rate reaching its highest point in six-and-a-half years.

At the end of the first quarter of 2010, overall average asking rents for Miami office space were $30.53 per square foot, a 1.4 percent increase from $30.34 per square foot at the end of 2009. Average asking rents for direct class-A space - space available directly from landlords rather than as a sublease - increased 3.8 percent quarter-over-quarter, ending the first quarter at $37.87 per square foot.

The overall vacancy rate for Miami office space reached 18.5 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2010, a 1.5 percentage point increase from 17.0 percent at the end of 2009, and its highest level since the third quarter of 2003, when the overall vacancy rate was 18.6 percent. Vacant sublease space, which totaled 661,948 square feet at the end of the first quarter, accounted for 7.3 percent of all vacant space, a decrease from the end of last year when it accounted for 8.6 percent of all vacant space.

The Miami office market charted -48,639 square feet of absorption during the first quarter of 2010, meaning more office space was brought to the market than space that was taken off. However, it was a better picture than the first quarter of 2009, when the market record -360,111 square feet of absorption.

"Although leasing activity is beginning to pick up some momentum, we are not witnessing positive absorption," said Alan Kleber, a senior director based in Cushman & Wakefield's Miami office. "This will not occur until we begin to see white collar job growth."

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