Fairfield County”™s office market fundamentals remained relatively flat during the second quarter of this year, according to a new report by commercial real estate service firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.
The one exception to the trend was leasing activity, which ended the quarter with more than 1 million square feet ”“ a significant improvement from the 473,549 square feet leased in the first quarter. Nevertheless, combined leasing volumes for the first and second quarter of 2016 were down by 32.5 percent compared with the first half of 2015, which totaled 2.2 million square feet.
The overall availability rate for the second quarter stood at 21.7 percent ”“ the same figure as first quarter 2016 but better than the 22.7 percent recorded for second quarter 2015. The direct asking rent averaged $35.07 per square foot, down 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, from this year”™s first quarter and last year”™s second quarter.
