South Florida Office Market Report
| Average Asking Rent (Price/SF) | $36.45 |
| Vacancy Rate (%) | 13.3% |
| Net Absorption (SF) | -213,713 |
Although supply continued to outpace demand during the fourth quarter with over 213,000 square feet of negative absorption, this was far less than the almost 1 million square feet of negative absorption seen during the third quarter of 2020, when impacts from the pandemic began to surface. Over 1.3 million square feet of negative absorption occurred throughout South Florida during 2020. Notably, this was significantly down from the previous economic recession in 2009, when 2.6 million square feet of negative absorption occurred during the Great Recession. Broward continued to feel the brunt of space returned to the market, while Palm Beach and Miami-Dade experienced a more balanced approach between supply and demand during the fourth quarter. The Class A segment recorded over 822,000 square feet of negative absorption in 2020, as the Class B sector followed with 259,000 square feet of returned supply. Lower-tier Class C office space saw a similar performance with 249,500 square feet of negative absorption. The majority of office space coming back to the market were from tenants under 5,000 square feet, coupled with downsizes and consolidations. This, combined with the completion of eight office projects totaling over 1.4 million square feet, helped push vacancy upward 240 basis points from one year ago to settle at 13.3%.
Download South Florida Office Market Report 4Q20South Florida Industrial Market Report
| Average Asking Rent (Price/SF) | $8.45 |
| Vacancy Rate (%) | 4.9% |
| Net Absorption (SF) | 1,077,376 |
The past year saw demand outpace supply to close out the start of the new decade with another year of consecutive positive absorption, marking 11 years of growth. Approximately 4.3 million square feet of positive net absorption was posted for all of 2020, as the industrial sector significantly improved from the 2.5 million square feet absorbed one year ago and just shy of tying the record year during 2018 of 4.6 million square feet. The region’s strong annual growth continued to spur developers breaking ground on new projects, with over 5.4 million square feet of new industrial product completed throughout the region in 2020. Despite the robust construction, overall vacancy rates ticked upward 30 basis points to 4.9% from this time last year. Notably, overall vacant space remained below the 5.0% mark to signal strong market fundamentals held during a year with so much uncertainty. Another positive indicator for the market was that more than 54.0% of the 5.9 million square feet still under construction has been pre-leased and will lessen the impacts to vacancy rates significantly climbing in 2021. Lasting tight market conditions translated into an average asking rental rate of $8.88/SF throughout the region, a slight increase from the $8.74/SF recorded at the close of the fourth quarter of 2019. For the most part, asking rents held level throughout the year, but average rents appeared to level off as second-tier space has more of an impact on weighted averages as newer high-end space gets leased more quickly.
Download South Florida Industrial Market Report 4Q20