Long Island Office Might Finally Be Moving In The Right Direction
The historically tepid Long Island office real estate market showed positive signs in Q1 2017.
The overall vacancy rate declined to 9.8% from 10.2% in the first quarter of 2016, and is better than its six-year average of 11.7%. Nassau County unsurprisingly is stronger than Suffolk, with 8.4% vacancy compared to the outer county's 11.8%, according to a Newmark Grubb Knight Frank study as reported by Long Island Business News.
Although asking rate in both counties remained stagnant year-over-year, net absorption bounced back to negative 49K SF from a negative 168K SF nadir in last year's fourth quarter. Long Island still has a long way to go to match 2016's first quarter of 257K SF in positive absorption.
Each county had a particularly strong submarket in 2017's first quarter, with Nassau's Surprise Lake/New Hyde Park area sporting a 5.5% vacancy rate and Suffolk's Melville area at 8.6%, a sizable improvement over the 12.5% of a year ago.
