In a welcome and long-awaited step, the New York Real Estate Board’s reports on office building visits (i.e., physical occupancy by employees) will now be published each month. REBNY data based on Placer.ai location data was previously published quarterly.
September figures from 350 Manhattan buildings show visitation increased to 66% of pre-pandemic levels, according to REBNY. That was slightly higher than second-quarter rates and six percentage points higher than in September 2022.
It was also well ahead of Kastle’s oft-cited but gap-ridden “Back to Work Barometer,” which consistently finds visits to Manhattan to be below 50% of pre-pandemic levels because its survey does not include most properties owned by the largest owners, who have the greatest office attendance.
Keith DeCoster, director of market data and policy at REBNY, said: “As we work with Placier, our goal is always to provide more details. It took us a while to explore all the different buildings, but we are confident that in the future we will be able to provide monthly data that includes some week-by-week details.”
