Office Investment Market Still Down Compared To 2019

New York, LA and Boston Skylines (iStock)

The U.S. office investment market has yet to recover from the pandemic, as sales volume remains well below 2019 levels.

The dollar volume of investment sales transactions across the top 30 markets totaled $28 billion in July. That was 45 percent below the July 2019 amount of $39.5 billion, according to Reonomy figures first reported by Commercial Observer.

Comparing volume in Q2 2021 and Q2 2019, some metro markets appear to be recovering — total volume in the second quarter of this year in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston is just 7 percent below totals in Q2 2019.

San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are still down dramatically compared to the second quarter of 2019. Investment sales volume in both cities was 28 percent lower than two years prior.

Seattle also recorded a 23 percent drop in sales volume between from Q2 2019.

But there was a bright spot. The $5.3 billion in Q2 transactions in New York was nearly triple the total of the first quarter.

And the wider commercial real estate market saw a relatively high level of activity in the second quarter. The $130.9 billion in commercial real estate investment sales was just 2.2 percent lower than two years prior, and up 169.5 percent from the pandemic-slowed second quarter of 2020.

Unsurprisingly, all of the top 30 markets tracked by Reonomy showed some level of recovery from pandemic lows.

[CO] — Dennis Lynch