A confluence of factors continues to impact San Francisco’s office market, with vacancy and availability rates reaching record highs in the first quarter of 2024, according to commercial real estate analysts at global companies Avison Young and CBRE.
Availability—the combination of vacancy and sublease opportunities in the market—reached 36.7 percent of all office square footage from January to April, according to recently released market analyses from the leading commercial real estate firms.
“We’re at mostly record levels, and I say that kind of cautiously optimistic,” Dina Gouveia, west region market intelligence manager for Avison Young, told The Epoch Times April 25.
According to Ms. Gouveia vacancies only saw a “slight uptick” during the first quarter which might mean such is slowing.
“[I]f we can continue that slower velocity of additional vacancies … then it would be a very good indicator of us being near a bottom,” she said.
Much of the issue, experts say, is the city’s reliance on the tech industry, with more than 44 percent of its office space housing technology companies.
Additionally, tech firms lead the list of upcoming lease expirations—accounting for 45.8 percent, according to Avison Young.
