NEWS

New York State Inquiries Show Strong Start to Q4

Inquiries through officebroker.com for executive suites in the state of New York have shown an impressive start to Q4 2009, despite a month-on-month drop of -17% in November.

Inquiries for offices in the state of New York had a strong start to Q4

Looking at the average number of office inquiries per month for the state of New York in Q1, Q2 and Q3 to date, and with the month of December yet to be counted for Q4, the average monthly volume of inquiries in Q4 are already well above that of the first three quarters. Q4 is currently 28% higher than Q3, a massive 97% up on Q2, and 23% over Q1.

Q4's impressive performance is despite a -17% drop in inquiries in November when compared to October. However, October appears to have produced an unusually high volume of inquiries - currently the highest of the year so far.

On the contrary, looking back across the year, New York appeared to have suffered a decline in interest in the middle part of 2009. May produced the lowest inquiry level of the year to date, dropping -39% compared to the previous month, and -42% down on May 2008.

More positively, inquiries then began to strengthen month-on-month from May onwards, and followed a continuous upward trend until October. June increased by 10% when compared to May, July was up 46%, August rose by 27%, September by 2% and October by 29%.

The below graph represents the shape of inquiries for New York state to date, from January through to November 2009:

Further analysis of the inquiry figures throughout 2009 show that New York had a strong start to the year, with inquiries in January 2009 a massive 93% up when compared to the same month in 2008.

Interestingly, where inquiries for New York started to decline in the first part of 2009, 2008 shows a different pattern. Inquiries rose consistently throughout the first quarter in 2008, and increased again in May (May 2009 was -42% down when compared to May 2008). In contrast to 2008, the early part of 2009 produced a series of declining figures.

February 2009 declined by -17% compared to January 2009, and aside from a 2% rise in March, inquiries then dropped for two consecutive months from April (-13%) to May (-39%).

Worthy of note is that this shape of New York inquiries in 2009 follows a similar pattern to those received by officebroker.com for the US as a whole. As we reported in October, in our study 'US Inquiries Show Excellent Growth Rate', May 2009 also produced the bottom of the ‘V’ shape, with the lowest inquiry rate of the year to date.

Having updated this graph to include all US inquiries in October and November 2009, October produced a peak which is the highest inquiry rate of the year so far, again similar to New York's results.

The below graph represents the shape of inquiries for the US as a whole, from January through to November 2009. This representation is similar to that of inquiries for New York during the same time period:

Overall, the most likely reason for the lack of interest shown in the second quarter is a combination of the recession, a lack of business confidence, and rising unemployment. These factors have all taken their toll on US enterprise since the credit crunch took hold in 2007, and continues to plague the business community, despite the US now having officially emerged from recession.

Positively, the impressive start to Q4 for both New York offices and collectively for the US suggest that businesses may be getting back on track, and once again seem to be putting the need for office space at the top of their agenda.

The continued success of Q4 will depend on the conclusion of December 2009. Inquiries may drop further, as businesses will often shelve their requirement for new office space until January, post-Christmas and New Year. However if the strength of Q4 carries through until the end of December, and more businesses do pursue their office requirements after Christmas, 2010 could produce an even stronger start to the year than shown in 2009.

For more details of executive suites to rent in New York or any other location in the US, search online at us.officebroker.com or speak to our team of regional consultants for free expert advice.