In the first quarter of 2019, New Jersey’s industrial market experienced strong fundamentals in both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter metrics, CBRE announced Friday.
Reflecting that strength was an all-time high asking lease rate of $7.25 per-square-foot, an increase of 3%.
“The industrial market in New Jersey continued to stand out as one of the hottest and most active markets in the country,” William Waxman, executive vice president, CBRE, said. “The influx of e-commerce and logistics users continued unabated during the first quarter, a trend that is sure to remain given New Jersey’s ideal location in the Northeast, strong market fundamentals and highly qualified labor pool.”
CBRE said the availability rate was down in the first quarter to 6.4%, 20 basis points below the previous quarter and 40 basis points down from the first quarter of 2018.
Leasing activity also showed signs of stability, CBRE said, with 6.9 million square feet of new transactions delivered in the first quarter, an increase of 750,000 square feet, or 12%, over the last quarter.
Net absorption posted the third-highest quarterly total in the past five years — 4.5 million square feet — and the best first quarter of all time since CBRE started metric tracking.
The first quarter ended with 19 developments under construction, totaling 5.8 million square feet. There were also 10 buildings completed in the quarter, which added about 3.3 million square feet of new inventory.
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