Overall vacancy remained steady at 13.8 percent, due to new office space delivered during the quarter. High-quality space still drives the market, with Class A buildings in the Back Bay and Financial District accounting for 486,000 square feet of absorption and East Cambridge rents reaching $60 per square foot for the first time since 2000. Class B buildings are also benefitting from the strong market, with Downtown Boston Class B rents growing at a faster rate than their Class A counterparts.
“It’s a very good sign of a strong office market to see growth permeate the entire region, not just in one or two areas,” said Steve Purpura, Transwestern | RBJ executive managing director and Northeast market leader. “The positive gains reflect the broader economic picture in the region, including the low unemployment rate and a very active public markets sector.”
Vacancy in Cambridge dropped to a scant 6.6 percent, while the Route 128 market remained at 15.2 percent and the Interstate 495 submarket dipped to 20.9 percent. The joint Framingham/Natick submarket has a 9.4 percent vacancy rate. In just the past 12 months, Newton and Wellesley rents increased 27.3 percent and 23.4 percent, respectively.
This quarter’s “Market Interesting” feature looks at how luxury living development has exploded in nearly every neighborhood in Boston — more than 8,000 residential units are expected to hit the market between 2014 and 2016, according to a recent article in the Boston Globe. The “officeSTATus” report highlights eight of the developments, with the size, number of units and date of opening.