Houston’s commercial real estate market shaky, GHP

​​​​​​​HOUSTON – The forecast is shaky for commercial real estate for the next year, said Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP).

Jankowski pointed to the continued turmoil in oil prices and the amount of sublease space on the market as reasons behind the slowdown in commercial real estate.

"If sublease reaches 10 million sf by the first quarter of 2016, which CBRE analysts are saying might happen, that would take about two years to absorb that amount," Jankowski said.

The Houston area is still slated to add about 20,000 jobs this year, but the city has not yet made it to positive job growth for the year.

Jankowski also showed city data marking a drop in the value of building permits and said that construction has peaked for the cycle, particularly for office and retail construction.

More multifamily and industrial construction is underway now than at this time last year, but Jankowski said he doesn’t think those numbers will continue to stay that high in coming quarters.​