CBRE Report: Boston’s Office Market Expected to Stabilize in 2021

Office fundamentals in the greater Boston region are expected to stabilize by the end of 2021, but the first half of the year is expected to bring continued rent decline and increased vacancy, according to CBRE’s 2021 Boston Real Estate Market Outlook.

The firm predicts employees will begin returning to the office safely in the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in the second half of 2021. At that time, the firm expects the long-term implications of widespread remote working to become clearer in the Boston market.

In Boston’s life science market, the sector was relatively unscathed through the pandemic and showed resiliency throughout much of 2020. Demand among life science users as well as strong leasing activity during 2020 has created a lack of supply in Boston’s core life science markets as we enter 2021.

The hardest hit sector in 2020, according to CBRE was retail. While Boston’s dense urban core and transit dependency reoccupying offices could result in a slower recovery for retailers, CBRE predicts an opportunity for retailers that have long faced high cost barriers to make a splash with interesting and experiential retail in 2021.

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