U.S. office markets remained active in the fourth quarter of 2018 with new leasing volume totaling 74.7 million square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Although this was slightly less than the 80.2 million square feet of new leasing recorded in the third quarter of the year, it was greater than the 73.4 million square feet recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.
New leasing volume for 2018 was 311.9 million square feet, only slightly lower than the cyclical high of 314.8 million square feet in 2017. In the fourth quarter, the tech sector accounted for slightly more than one-third (34.4 percent) of the leasing volume, well ahead of the 18.8 percent share secured by the financial services sector. The real estate sector captured the third-largest share of leasing volume in the fourth quarter — approximately 5.6 percent — largely a reflection of the co-working sector’s rapid growth. For all of 2018, tech leases accounted for an estimated 29.3 percent of activity,
