Triangle, North Carolina.  Office Space Demand Strong.  Yesterday I reported the dramatic drop in purchases of office properties in the Triangle during the first quarter of this year vs. the first quarter of last year.  Again, it should be pointed out that much of that drop was caused by inability to get financing on the part of many interested buyers.  None-the-less, the flip side of that coin is the demand for office space by end users.  It was surprisingly strong during this year’s first quarter.  At the end of the first quarter only 12.5 percent of the Triangle’s offices were empty.  That is down from 13 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2007.  Furthermore, class-A rents jumped 10 percent from the year ago quarter.  The first quarter of the year is usually the slowest leasing period of the year and yet leasing activity was quite strong. 

Is there a cloud lurking on the horizon?  There is 2.7 million square feet of office space currently under construction.  That’s the highest first quarter total in more than 10 years.  Commercial property managers had problems getting deals closed last year while this year the deals are being closed relatively promptly.  That doesn’t mean that every area in the Triangle is strong.  Some are and some are soft.  However, overall the leasing of office space in the Triangle is going very well.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com 

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Raleigh Durham Realtor, Triangle Commercial Property, Triangle Office Space.