Asking rents have fallen by $0.36 per square foot per month over the past year and available space has increased by 20% in Orange County’s roughly 108 million square foot market.  The total amount of office space available in Orange County, including both direct and sublease space, was 22.41% in the first quarter, up from 18.69% in the same quarter last year.  Net absorption for the county totaled 691,274 square feet for the first quarter, giving the market a total of 3.4 million square feet of negative absorption for the last eight quarters. When the market was at it’s strongest in the mid 2000’s it was absorbing about 3.3 million square feet per year.

Orange County will see construction of new office space nearly halted for the foreseeable future.  Only two office buildings of 120,000 square feet were added in the first quarter, and the amount of space under construction totaled 173,209 square feet at the end of the first quarter, almost 80% lower than the same time last year.

There are signs of increased activity in the office market as more perspective tenants have been testing the market, however the outlook for the time being is for rental rates to remain soft and concessions to tenants will continue to increase in order to secure tenancy.

CresaPartners is an international corporate real estate advisory firm that exclusively represents tenants and specializes in the delivery of fully integrated real estate services, including: Transaction Management, Project Management, Relocation Planning and Management, Strategic Planning, Workforce & Location Planning, Subleases and Dispositions, Lease Administration, Capital Markets, and Facilities Consulting. With more than 50 North American offices, CresaPartners is the largest pure tenant representation firm in the U.S. and Canada. Through a partnership with BNP Paribas, CresaPartners is a member of one of the leading real estate organizations in the world, covering 35 countries.