Oakland East Bay Named World’s Top Office Rental Market

California’s Oakland East Bay area was named the world’s top market for annual office rental growth in the second quarter, according to JLL's latest Global Office Index.

Oakland East Bay saw a 35.4 percent year-over-year expansion in its office rental market, a good distance ahead of second place Stockholm (28.9 percent) and the third place finishers Dublin and Dubai (20 percent each). Along with Oakland East Bay, three other U.S. cities were featured in the top ten: Los Angeles (seventh), Atlanta (eighth) and Austin (ninth) showing 13.5 percent, 13 percent and 12.1 percent growth respectively.

Rents on prime office assets across the 110 major markets covered by the JLL Global Office Index increased by 3.6 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, which was the fastest pace of annual growth in four years. Rents rose by 0.8 percent in the second quarter, compared to 0.6 percent in the previous quarter.

“Global office demand is proving resilient in many of the world's dominant commercial real estate markets, despite increased political and economic uncertainty that is leading to corporate occupiers striking a more cautious tone,” said Jeremy Kelly, director of global research programs at JLL. “Office supply continues to tighten on the back of a shallow development cycle, and this is creating continued upward momentum in aggregate rental growth.”