Southern New Jersey’s commercial real estate market is in good shape, making moderate gains and showing strong fundamentals, according to WCRE‘s most recently report. The commercial real estate brokerage said its anticipating strong growth in the market with the upcoming new tax laws.
“Our market continues to show quiet strength and may take off as consumers and businesses feel the effects of lower tax rates,” said Jason Wolf, founder and managing principal of WCRE. “We expect the new law to be a net positive for overall economic growth in 2018 and be especially beneficial to the commercial real estate industry.”
WCRE said there was approximately 303,656 square feet of new leases and renewals in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties, a gain of 10 percent over the previous quarter. Leasing also picked up in the three counties with about 1.46 million square feet on the market or under agreement and an additional 317,961 square feet in negotiations.
New leasing activity accounted for about 61.4 percent of all deals. Overall, net absorption for the quarter was approximately 253,000 square feet.
Some more highlights from the report:
- Overall vacancy in the market is now at about 10.4 percent, nearly one point more than the previous quarter;
- Vacancy in Camden County improved to 11.6 percent;
- Burlington County vacancy was at 9.2 percent, which was also below last quarter.
WCRE also reported on South Jersey’s retail market.
The second quarter, WCRE said, saw a drop in consumer confidence and a positive outlook for consumer spending. Other higlights include:
- Retail vacancy in Camden County stood at 7.7 percent.
- Retail vacancy in Burlington County stood at 9.8 percent.
- Retail vacancy in Gloucester County stood at 7.4 percent.
