$100,000 doesn’t pay the bills for a small family in DC
April 20, 2025
D.C., Commanders Reach $3.8B Deal For RFK Stadium District
April 28, 2025U.S. office properties lost more than 8M SF of occupancy in the first quarter, halting the momentum shown in late 2024 when office market absorption went positive for the first time since 2021.
The 8.1M SF of negative net absorption was driven by federal lease terminations, federal contractor sublease additions and buildings removed from the inventory for conversion, according to a JLL report.
Although the Department of Government Efficiency has been inconsistent with its federal lease termination plans, it had terminated 653 leases totaling 7.5M SF throughout the country as of April 15, according to JLL’s DOGE Federal Lease Termination Tracker. That accounts for about 4% of General Services Administration-leased inventory in the U.S.
DOGE, the agency tasked with slashing federal bureaucracy and led by billionaire Elon Musk, could terminate up to 52% of GSA leases by the end of President Donald Trump’s term.
The occupancy losses brought net absorption back into negative territory. Tenants had leased 276K SF more than they vacated in the fourth quarter. But even the negative Q1 figure is a 60% improvement from a year earlier, the report says.
