Manhattan office leasing rises 2.3% through third quarter of 2026

Manhattan office leasing reached 25.7 million square feet through the third quarter of 2026, up 2.3 percent from the same period last year, according to JLL data reported by IREI.

Total vacancy fell to 12.6 percent from 14.7 percent and direct asking rents rose to $84.56 per square foot, JLL data reported by IREI show. The increases showed up across building classes.

Year-to-date net absorption reached nearly 4.9 million square feet, close to a quarter of the 21 million square feet JLL counted nationally, according to this publication's Oct. 14 coverage.

Evan Margolin, a vice chairman in JLL New York's tenant representation group, said tenants are considering buildings and locations they would not have looked at a few years ago. He cited a hedge fund client that signed a Third Avenue lease after more than two decades on Park Avenue. "Tenants are widening the map because they have to, but also because they're finding attractive alternatives," said David Giancola, a senior managing director in JLL New York's capital markets group, in an IREI interview.