Measure Description
The Office Vacancy Rate is the percentage of all office space in San Francisco that is vacant or unoccupied at a given time and is an indicator of the strength of the City's Commercial Real Estate market. As most offices are located in downtown San Francisco, the Office Vacancy Rate is also a key indicator of the City's post-pandemic downtown recovery. Commercial Real Estate is a key component of San Francisco's economy and will continue to affect the vitality of the city's core business, retail, and tourism districts.
The Office Vacancy Rate is a Citywide demand indicator; therefore, no City department is directly responsible for the measure's monthly performance.
Why this measure is important
Downtown San Francisco has historically been the economic center for the entire Bay Area. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 470,000 people commuted daily to downtown San Francisco, driving significant business and economic activity throughout the City.
Yet during the pandemic, most office workers began working from home, drastically reducing the number of daily commuters to downtown San Francisco. This placed financial pressures on small businesses located in downtown, as well their employees.
Reporting on the Office Vacancy Rate provides the public, elected officials, and City staff with a current snapshot of San Francisco's Commercial Real Estate market and downtown recovery. The interactive chart below presents the City's Office Vacancy Rate on a quarterly basis.
The chart's legend is below:
- Y-axis: Office vacancy rate percentage
- X-axis: Calendar year & quarter
Office Vacancy Rate
How performance is measured
The Office Vacancy Rate is calculated using the following methodology:
Number of vacant office spaces divided by the total number of office spaces available on the market.
The Office Vacancy Rate reached a record low of 4.70% in Quarter 2 of 2019. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco's Office Vacancy Rate has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.
Data
All commercial real estate data comes from Jones Lang LaSalle. Visit DataSF to view Office Vacancy Rate data.
Additional Information
View more commercial real estate data on the San Francisco Economic Recovery Dashboards.