Office Vacancy Across Los Angeles Unchanged in Q1

As the Los Angeles office market finds its footing post-pandemic, vacancy has held steady in recent months.

Office vacancy across Los Angeles held firm at 15.9 percent in Q1, the same as it was at the end of 2025, L.A. Business First reported, citing the latest data from Kidder Mathews. Class A office space vacancy was higher at 20.6 percent.

Net absorption reached negative 143,400 square feet in the first quarter, a reversal from the positive 172,500 square feet absorbed during the same period a year earlier. Total leasing activity fell to 3.4 million square feet, down nearly 32 percent year over year.

The data points to a market that has stopped deteriorating rapidly but still lacks meaningful momentum. Companies are increasingly opting to shrink footprints or hold onto existing space rather than expand.

Landlords, meanwhile, are keeping asking rents relatively stable instead of slashing pricing outright. Average countywide asking rents landed at $3.53 per square foot, remaining roughly flat year over year, while Class A rents averaged $3.76. Owners in submarkets with higher vacancy rates are leaning more heavily on tenant improvement packages and rent abatements to secure tenants as demand for large blocks of space dries up, according to Kidder Mathews.

As technology and entertainment tenants pull back, health care-related tenants and new media companies have been driving leasing activity across the county. So-called traditional companies such as law firms have also been a reliable source of leasing activity. In the past year, more than three quarters of law firms facing lease decisions opted to relocate within the market, often in renovated spaces or with larger footprints, per Colliers data cited by L.A. Business First.

The outlook for the rest of the year remains subdued. Kidder Mathews projects elevated vacancy and muted rent growth through at least the middle of next year.

— Chris Malone Méndez