Beneficiary of strong pop, expansions et al? Austin office growth 4Q2015

AUSTIN - ​Newmark Grubb Knight Frank has released its Austin Office Market Report for fourth quarter 2015. 

Strong demand drivers have produced healthy fundamentals and higher asking rents going into 2016.

Austin has been the beneficiary of strong population growth, corporate relocations and expansions, low unemployment and a well-educated workforce.

These favorable factors have resulted in a multiyear growth cycle that shows no sign of slowing down.

Vacancy continued its decline, dropping 0.5 percent from 3Q2015 and 1.1 percent from 4Q2014.

Four of the metro’s eight submarkets recorded vacancy below 10%: Southwest Austin (9.6%), Northwest Austin (9.0%). North Au​stin (7.6%) and the Central Business District (6.2%). ​

Absorption totaled 1,026,872 sf for 4Q2015 and 3.1 million sf for the whole year, with every submarket experiencing positive net absorption for 2015.

The year ended with nine buildings totaling 1.4 million sf under construction.

With vacancy continuing its decline, the market’s asking rents increased 9.8 percent year-over-year​