What are Rental Rates in Orange County, California?
Rental rates are one of the most commonly cited statistics for understanding the performance of an office market. In fact, we find one of the most common questions our clients ask is “what are office rental rates in Orange County?”
To help answer that question, in this article we’ve broken down rental rates across the Orange County office market, including:
Overall average rental rate in Orange County
Rental rates in Orange County’s submarkets
Overall Average Rental Rate in Orange County
Let’s start off by looking at the average office rental rate in Orange County as a whole. As of this quarter, asking base rates averaged just over $28 per square foot. This means a 10,000-square-foot tenant can expect to pay roughly $282,200 per year in base rent for office space in Orange County.
Vacancy Rates in Orange County’s Submarkets
There are five primary submarkets in the Orange County office market, each of which has its own unique characteristics and trends. We’ve broken down vacancy across these submarkets to provide a more granular view of office vacancy rates in Orange County today.
Greater Airport Area
The Greater Airport Area is Orange County’s most expensive submarket, currently having an average base rate of $31.07 per square foot. This rate is below the $34 peak experienced in early 2020 but is still above the submarket’s historical average. A 10,000-square-foot tenant should expect to pay roughly $310,700 per year for base rent in this submarket.
South / Laguna Hills
Orange County’s South / Laguna Hills submarket is relatively more affordable than the Greater Airport Area. The submarket’s average asking base rent is $27.94 per square foot as of this writing, meaning our 10,000-square-foot tenant should expect to pay roughly $279,400 per year in base rent.
West
Despite being Orange County’s smallest submarket, the West submarket shares a nearly identical average asking base rate to the South / Laguna Hills submarket. Currently averaging $27.91 per square foot, a 10,000-square-foot tenant will pay roughly $279,100 per year in base rent for office space in this submarket.
Central
The Central submarket has the lowest average asking base rate for office space in Orange County, averaging only $25.42 per square foot. A 10,000-square-foot tenant should expect to pay around $254,200 per year in this submarket. The submarket had been on an upward trend since its previous low of $19 per square foot in 2012 but has fallen following the impacts of Covid-19.
North
Orange County’s North submarket has a similarly low asking base rental rate as the Central submarket, although not quite as low. As of this writing, asking rates average $25.74 per square foot, meaning a 10,000-square-foot tenant should expect to pay $257,400 in base rent for space in this submarket. Unlike Orange County’s other submarkets, however, this submarket has achieved growing rental rates following Covid-19.
Conclusion
We hope this answered any questions you had about rental rates for Orange County’s office market. Be sure to also check out our article on current vacancy rates in Orange County, and feel free to reach out to our experienced team if you have any additional questions.
