SF office vacancy hits an all-time high, surpassing dot-com bust - SFGate

File photo of space for lease in San Francisco.

Prices dipped 14.8% last quarter, making it the first time in five years that Manhattan’s office rental market is more expensive than San Francisco’s, as first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

That makes a total of 16.3 million square feet vacant in the city, with over half of the space vacant subleases.

Typically, there’s about 1 million square feet of subleasing space on the San Francisco market at any given time, but as the pandemic drags on, companies stuck in leases are trying to recoup some of their losses.

With an additional 1.5 million square feet of sublease space added in Q1, there’s now a total of 9.5 million square feet on the market.

San Francisco overall direct asking office rents decreased 1.5% in Q1 2021 and optimism abounds with widespread vaccines in April and the potential for lifted restrictions in June should the state hit certain goals,” said Lexi Russell, Director of Research & Analysis at CBRE.