Los Angeles Office Vacancies Down, Rents Up, LA Times Reports

The overall office vacancy rate for Los Angeles County fell to 12.3% from 14.8% a year earlier, while monthly asking rent increased 5 cents to $2.11 per square foot, reported real estate brokerage Cushman and Wakefield. More than 4.5 million square feet was absorbed by the market last year, with only 791,000 square feet of new space constructed. Cushman and Wakefield predicts that the average vacancy rate for office space in the county will decrease to 10% by the end of the year, considered to be the state of equilibrium between buyers and sellers. For the past 15 years, it has generally been considered to be a buyers market due to the rapid increase in office building construction which took place in the late 1980’s, which led to the commercial office real estate crash in teh early 1990’s. Westside office vacancy rates decreased to 9.2% from 13.3% a year earlier,m while average rents climbed 10 cents to $2.73 per square foot. Even downtown Los Angeles improved from a 17% vacancy rate a year earlier to 14.3% currently. The office market in the South Bay of Los Angeles continues to lag behind the activity in many parts of the Los Angeles County market, particularly in the Century Boulevard Corridor.