DFW office leasing near record high in 2015

​​DALLAS-FORT WORTH – North Texas’ office market just finished its best year in more than two decades.

Expanding and relocating businesses leased more than 5 million sf of Dallas-Fort Worth office space, according to preliminary numbers from commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Net office leasing was up about 10 percent from last year and the highest volume since the 1980s.

The biggest office leasing totals were in the Telecom Corridor along North Central Expressway, in Irving and in West Plano and Frisco.

For the first time in memory, office occupancy levels were higher in every section of the Dallas area. With the surge in leasing, overall building vacancy dropped to just over 16 percent — the lowest vacancy rate in more than ten years.

The supply of office space was even tighter in North Dallas, Uptown and in the Telecom Corridor, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Average office building rents in North Texas are at an all-time high of more than $24 per sf — more than 15 percent ahead of where office rents were before the recession.

With the jump in rents and tight supply, developers aren’t wasting anytime adding to the supply.

At the end of 2015, 6.2 million sf of new office space was in the construction pipeline in the DFW area. Most of the new building is in West Plano and Frisco, in Irving and in the Telecom Corridor.

About half of the office space currently under construction in North Texas is already spoken for with leases to major companies, including Toyota, Liberty Mutual Insurance, CoreLogic and State Farm Insurance.