- Midtown availability fell to 27.7M SF in Q3, equal to March 2020, making it the first New York submarket to regain all pandemic-era occupancy losses, per Colliers.
- Midtown’s average asking rent rose 5.4% from a year earlier to $85.08 per SF, the biggest Q3 gain since 2014, while borough-wide Class A asking rents hit a record $85.45.
- AI firms leased nearly 1.1M SF in Manhattan in Q3, more than their 790K SF for all of 2025, helping Midtown South post record third-quarter leasing of 4.8M SF.
Midtown Manhattan has erased its pandemic-era office losses, with availability back to 27.7M SF, the same level as March 2020, according to Colliers data reported by Bisnow.
That makes Midtown the first New York submarket to recover fully, while asking rents set records and Manhattan leasing stays on pace for its busiest year since 2000.
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Rents Hit Records
Class A owners across the borough have lifted asking rents to a record $85.45 per SF. In Midtown, the average asking rent is $85.08, up 5.4% from a year ago and the fastest Q3 increase since 2014.
The Midtown availability rate fell to 11.9%. SL Green’s Steven Durels said at a Bank of America conference last month that rents are climbing across the market, not only at the top end, per Bisnow.
Leasing Stays Brisk
Over 10M SF of new leases were signed borough-wide in the quarter. The year is tracking toward the most active since 2000.
The largest Midtown deal was Proskauer Rose’s 478K SF expansion at 11 Times Square.
Midtown South and the AI Effect
Midtown South, the tech hub, logged 4.8M SF of leasing, its best third quarter on record. Anthropic’s 466K SF lease of an entire building at 330 Hudson St. drove much of it.
AI companies took nearly 1.1M SF across Manhattan in Q3, up from 800K SF in the second quarter and from just 790K SF across all of 2025.
Downtown Falls Behind
Downtown went the other way. Tenants signed 850K SF of leases there, 21.7% under the five-year quarterly average.
Even so, availability across Manhattan ended the quarter at 12.4%, per Colliers.
Why It Matters
Bisnow reports that landlords now hold the leverage. Strong tenant demand, plus office-to-residential conversions, has ended the multiyear climb in tenant concessions.
The recovery is a milestone, as CRE Daily reported when Midtown office availability first returned to its pre-pandemic level.
What’s Next
Franklin Wallach of Colliers added in a statement that the market is starting a new chapter after reaching key recovery milestones. Watch whether Downtown regains momentum and whether Midtown rents keep rising as availability tightens.
