After Record Online Shopping Spree, 'All Heck Breaks Loose' For Apartment Owners

The coronavirus pandemic has given the industrial market such a boost from stockpiling, e-commerce and life sciences demand that the Greater Boston region can’t keep up.

The region’s warehouses recorded a record-setting third quarter with more than 940K SF of positive absorption and historically low availability and vacancy rates, CBRE’s Q3 2020 Industrial Report found.

The activity has caused rents to rise 5% to among the nation’s highest at $10.50 per SF, but with only 3M SF of warehouse space delivered in 2020 and 410K SF under construction, Boston is a “land-starved” market, CBRE Vice President Doug Rodenstein said. Greater Boston…

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Offices are going through one of the most profound changes in how they are used in generations, and the real estate industry is telling itself everything is going to be all right. 

That’s not surprising: After all, offices are the biggest subsector of real estate, and people that own offices only have to look at their retail assets to see how changes in the way people use a physical asset can destroy its value. 

A new prevailing wisdom has taken hold. Fewer people will come into the office, but they’ll want more space, so demand will be about the same. People might not come into city centres, but they will still want to work outside the home, so suburban offices will boom. Good technology and flexibility in offices will stimulate demand. 

While there is some truth in this, what do the ultimate consumers of real estate, the companies that lease space and their staff, think of the new world? The answers, provided by those making real estate decisions at some of the world’s biggest companies, speaking at Bisnow London’s Digital Office Summit last week, might not make comfortable reading for those who are long on offices, especially if those offices aren’t the best of the best. 

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