Manhattan’s office market delivered one of its strongest months of the post-pandemic era in October, with leasing volume surging 54.1 percent from September and 24.7 percent from October 2025, according to a new monthly report from Colliers. The brokerage counted 4.54 million square feet of leasing across the borough last month, a pace that matches the pre-pandemic monthly average and keeps Manhattan on track for its strongest year of leasing activity since 2000 if current conditions persist.
The demand is steadily draining the supply of available space. Manhattan’s overall availability rate tightened by 0.1 percentage points to 12.3 percent, which Colliers described as the tightest level since August 2020, while sublet supply fell to its lowest point in seven years. For landlords who spent the early 2020s contending with empty towers and wavering return-to-office mandates, the numbers mark a decisive swing in bargaining power back toward building owners.
Pricing is following the same curve. The average asking rent climbed to $79.47 per square foot in October, up from $78.36 in September and $75.18 in October 2025, matching the market’s pre-pandemic average for the first time. Midtown proper recorded the highest leasing volume with 2.4 million square feet, followed by Midtown South with 1.5 million square feet and Lower Manhattan with 567,181 square feet.
A handful of large commitments drove the October surge. Citadel, the hedge fund led by Ken Griffin, finally signed on as anchor tenant of 350 Park Avenue with a 1.05 million-square-foot lease, a transaction that had been in the works for more than a year. Financial technology firm Ramp expanded to 460,300 square feet at 28-40 West 23rd Street in Midtown South, while law firm Seward & Kissel renewed 171,112 square feet at One Battery Park Plaza and Morrison & Foerster renewed 141,148 square feet at 250 West 55th Street.
Colliers research chief Franklin Wallach said October also delivered several symbolic recovery milestones: Midtown’s available supply fell below its March 2020 level, and Midtown’s asking rent surpassed its pre-pandemic average. That is a notable reversal from the narrative that dominated 2021 through 2023, when hybrid work, tech layoffs and elevated interest rates left landlords discounting space and lenders writing down office values across the city.
The recovery has not been evenly distributed. Trophy and Class A buildings with modern amenities have captured most of the demand, while older commodity stock continues to struggle, and a wave of office-to-residential conversions is taking former office inventory off the market entirely. Still, the aggregate data suggests New York’s office market has exited its correction phase. With leasing volume year to date running well ahead of last year and availability falling toward levels last seen before the pandemic, brokers and landlords enter 2027 budget season with leverage they have not had in six years — and tenants facing noticeably fewer choices at the top of the market.
