As the Austin economy begins to pull itself out of a pandemic that closed offices, businesses and restaurants citywide, vacancy rates for office space continue to rise in the Northwest Austin submarket, a new report shows.
Real estate research and brokerage firm Aquila Commercial in early May published its Austin Office Market Report from the first quarter of 2021. According to that report, the Northwest Austin office market—generally defined in the paper as an area west of MoPac and stretching as far north as Cedar Park—is reporting a 13.7% total vacancy rate, which combines both direct and sublease vacancy rates.
The sublease vacancy rate shows when companies pay rent on an office space and attempt to sublease out space they do not use.
The first quarter of 2021 is now the fifth straight quarter the Northwest Austin market has seen an increase in the office vacancy rate.
Some of that trend is driven by high-volume leases going on the market, according to the report. In Northwest Austin, vacation rental company VRBO in February 2020 put more than 100,000 square feet of its office space at Domain 2 on the sublease market.
