With both employment and peak office employee occupancy remaining relatively hearty, the Houston office market received another jolt posting a second consecutive quarterof positive net absorption for the first time since before the onset of the pandemic. Evenmore promising was a spate of recent new leases signed in west Houston by the likes of Fluor Corporation, Wood Group and Technip, who combined to take down more than 700,000 square feet in the hard-hit Energy Corridor (Katy Fwy West Submarket) since the end of last year.
But not all the news is optimistic for landlords. Several occupiers in the string of recentleases reflected space reductions, with many occupiers opting to offload underutilized space. With total availability at near-historic highs (over 25 percent), Houston ranks the highest among all major U.S. metros. This glut of available space has further magnified the ongoing occupier flight-to-quality, where Class A office properties delivered since 2010 have a vacancy rate just north of 11 percent, far outpacing the metro average.
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