D-FW Closes Out 2018 As One of Nation's Top Office Leasing Markets
Despite a slowdown in leasing activity last year, Dallas-Fort Worth still wound up as one of the country's top office markets. Only New York City had more net office leasing in 2018, according to a new report by commercial property firm JLL. D-FW was second with more than 4 million square feet of office absorption, ahead of San Francisco and Denver. North Texas has been one of the U.S. leaders in office leasing in recent years with major corporate expansions and campus construction. The region ranked third nationally in new construction in 2018, behind New York and Washington, D. C., according to JLL.
Tech companies, coworking firms and the financial/insurance sector drove space demand nationally. Shared office firms occupied more than 23 million square feet around the nation -- a close second to tech companies. Financial businesses signed on for 21 million square feet of space.
In D-FW, office leasing spiked in the final months of the year.
"After three quarters of positive but slowing activity, the fourth quarter ended the year on a highly optimistic note, characterized by an active leasing market and sustained absorption and rent growth rather than a third year of slower net absorption and an acceleration in vacancy increases as expected earlier in 2018," JLL analysts wrote in their report.
Looking at the other Texas markets, Houston saw more than 2.2 million square feet of office construction and Austin had almost 3.8 million square feet going up. San Antonio added more than 1 million square feet...
