CBRE: Austin office positive net absorption hits 21st consecutive quarter

​​​​AUSTIN – CBRE has released the Austin Office MarketView report for first quarter 2016. ​​

Highlights include:

The average asking rate increased to $32.65 per sf in 1Q2016, following the trend of steep first quarter rent increases.

The Austin office market saw its 21^st consecutive quarter of positive net absorption and finished the period at 442,762 sf.

Both the CBD and the Southwest submarkets saw much of that action, but the Northwest submarket only came in at 8,792 sf absorbed.

However, the North Central submarket absorbed 130,560 sf​, much of that having been the Kendra Scott headquarters at Lamar Central, and the new WeWork location at University Park.

Overall vacancy increased 50 basis points to 10.1 percent in 1Q2016 due to the delivery of two new vacant buildings and the addition of two previously constructed buildings to the CBRE tracked set that were largely vacant.

This overshadowed the absorption gains as total availability moved up to 15.1 percent to finish the quarter.

Two buildings delivered in 1Q2016 for a total of 297,431 sf, both in the Northwest submarket.

Research Park Plaza V delivered at 32.4 percent preleased while Domain 1 delivered 100 percent vacant and available.

At quarter close, 11 office projects were under construction across five submarkets for a total 1.6 million sf of product.