Office leasing activity in Fairfield County dropped by 47% year-over-year during the second quarter, according to data published by Avison Young.
“There is no modern precedent for the post-Covid slowdown in leasing activity ”“ not 2001 nor 2008 ”“ due to the sudden change in office occupiers”™ future workplace strategies and the 2020 recession,” the new report states.
The county recorded a vacancy rate of 16.4%, with 1.2 million square feet of vacant space, and the report noted the vacancy rate increased from 2019 to the second quarter of 2021 by 220 basis points.
Furthermore, the report found net effective rents dropped by 4.6% over the quarter, signaling a Class A supply that is still greater than demand. Within the wider economy, Avison Young highlighted that the total Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk job level dropped by 12% since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, although office-using jobs saw a 2% uptick May 2020 to May 2021.
But despite the gloomy data, the report insisted that better days were not far away.
“Fairfield County”™s economy has begun to show signs of improvement as vaccination rates rose and Covid-restrictions loosened, allowing for greater return-to-work efforts for office employees,” said Sean Cahill, principal and managing director of Avison Young”™s Fairfield County office.
“While demand for office space is expected to remain sluggish, prime submarkets such as Stamford and Greenwich are poised to maintain resilience, having benefited from New York City relocations during the height of the pandemic.”
