Manhattan office leasing jumped 54% month-Over-Month in October
Manhattan office leasing jumped 54 percent in October.
The short version
- Colliers, the big real estate brokerage, shared the numbers.
- Volume also rose 25 percent from last year.
- Midtown saw the most space leased.
- For your business, asking rents climbed to $79 per foot.
Manhattan office leasing momentum jumped sharply in October compared with September and the same month last year, according to Colliers, the big real estate brokerage. In its monthly office report, the firm said leasing volume in Manhattan jumped 54.1 percent in October compared to September and 24.7 percent from the same 31-day period in 2025, matching the pre-pandemic average.
Midtown proper saw the highest volume with 2.4 million square feet of space leased. Some 1.5 million square feet of that was in Midtown South and 567,181 square feet in Lower Manhattan. As the availability rate tightened by 0.1 percent to 12.3 percent across all of Manhattan, the average asking rent climbed to $79.47 per square foot in October compared to $78.36 in September.
“Manhattan’s office market gained significant momentum in October, as leasing activity accelerated and market fundamentals continued to strengthen,” Franklin Wallach, executive managing director of research and business development for Colliers, said in a statement. Colliers reported that some of the biggest drivers in October’s leasing momentum were Citadel, the giant hedge fund firm run by Ken Griffin, finally committing to 1.05 million square feet as anchor tenant at 350 Park Avenue, and Ramp, a financial technology firm, expanding to 460,300 square feet at 28-40 West 23rd Street.
Other deals included Seward & Kissel, a financial services law firm, renewing its 171,112-square-foot office at One Battery Park Plaza, and Morrison & Foerster, the global law firm, sealing a 141,148-square-foot renewal at 250 West 55th Street. With year-to-date demand running well ahead of last year, Manhattan remains on pace for its strongest year of leasing activity since 2000 if current conditions persist. When landlords fill up towers across the river, it sets the tone for commercial rents everywhere.
