US office leasing increases 5% in past year Improving market characterized by smaller-sized deals, geographic unevenness
Office leasing bounced back in 2025, including in San Francisco, which saw a nearly 40% year-over-year increase in leasing volume. (Rob LeRoy/CoStar) By Phil Mobley CoStar Analytics January 7, 2026 | 3:55 P.M.
Office tenants signed up for an estimated 410 million square feet of space in 2025, a meaningful increase over the prior year. Still, persistently smaller deal sizes and a wide variation in leasing across major cities indicate a choppy recovery from the post-pandemic doldrums. The result represents an increase of more than 5% from a lackluster 2024, in which office leasing volume fell to its lowest level in 15 years, excluding the pandemic year of 2020. Furthermore, leasing momentum gained traction throughout the year, as 2025 closed out with three consecutive quarters of leasing volume exceeding 100 million square feet, a first since the opening three quarters of 2022.