Q1 2022 Office Market Outlook – Ventura County
Ventura County’s office market is in recovery mode as companies are working to bring their people back into the office post the pandemic shutdown. Tenant demand improved moderately this quarter throughout the region, helping to prop up occupancy and the average asking rent. Vacant office space on the market declined by 22,183 square feet from prior quarter, essentially keeping the vacancy rate flat from the prior quarter at 12.1 percent. Year over year the vacancy rate increased 10 basis points.
Vacated office space is getting slowly leased as tenants assess their work from home-office hybrid needs. Since the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 close to 1.5 million square feet of office space was leased, moving the total amount of vacant space on the market this quarter down to 3,527,234 square feet. In East Ventura County leasing volume increased 16.8 percent from last year at this time. West Ventura County, similarly, experienced a 14.0 precent increase in leasing volume over the same time frame indicating the office market is working to get back to pre-pandemic levels. Quarter over quarter, available sublease space increased 3.9 percent in the East, whereas the West witnessed a 17.0 percent increase. Overall, the average asking rent inched up 2-cents quarter over quarter to $2.53 per square foot full service gross.
