Q4 2021 Orlando Market Report
The Omicron variant casts doubt on when most companies will return to the office. Many companies that had at one time planned to repopulate their workspaces, put those plans on hold. Many others have implemented a permanent work from home solution with no plans to return. Yet others, are fully intending on coming back to the workplace. While there is no tried and true rationale behind who will be working remote, often these decisions are made from home offices which are outside of Florida and harder hit by the pandemic. At this point, we can’t make a prediction on when the office market will stabilize but likely the remainder of 2022 will be soft.
Interesting to note, the capital markets are very active considering the uncertainty in the office market. Over $900M in sales in the Q4 alone. $217 PSF on average up from $163 PSF just 2 quarters earlier. Institutional money is betting on the Orlando market’s future health.
Industrial leasing has cooled modestly with a mere 266,000 SF of positive net absorption which compares to an average of 626,000 SF over the last 4 quarters. Large users are forced to look at the build to suit market when considering a relocation.