Office users nationally said they expect to grow or maintain their footprints as in-office attendance continues to improve, according to a CBRE survey.

Office occupants’ expectations are “trending towards growth,” said Julie Whelan, an office occupancy analyst at CBRE.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they expected to expand their office space, while only 33 percent expected to use less space. The remainder, about one-fourth of respondents, expected their office space to remain the same.

The results from CBRE’s , released Monday, suggest the office market is continuing to gradually strengthen as it emerges from the pandemic-era doldrums.

The survey drew responses from 185 executive office occupiers in North America.

“We feel very strongly that this data gives us great sentiment about what our office markets are going to do over the coming years,” Whelan said.

Office analysts continue to see a trend of tenants chasing top-quality space. Many office users are “upgrading but downsizing” as they adjust to hybrid work policies, Whelan said.

The tight supply in the prime segment is only expected to grow scarcer as the construction pipeline is poised to deliver little new office space in the foreseeable future. The U.S. construction pipeline in the second quarter was about 21 million square feet.

“We’re going to end up this year with the lowest amount of office space delivered in a calendar year in the last decade or so,” said Manish Kashyap, CBRE’s global president for leasing.

Few tenants are trading down for more space. Instead, companies seek centrally located offices with excellent transportation options and a strong complement of amenities, and they’re willing to squeeze into smaller spaces as needed, Kashyap said.

“The dichotomy in the market is the scarcity is actually in better located, highly desirable offices,” he said. “That’s where the challenge is.”

Most companies have settled into a hybrid work schedule, with offices bustling midweek but more employees choosing to work from home on Mondays and Fridays, CBRE analysts said.

“A lot of American offices feel awesome on Wednesday at this point, but they do feel pretty pokey or uninspiring on Mondays or Fridays,” said Jamie Hodari, CBRE’s chief executive officer of building operations and experience. “I have found very few companies that have found a way to crack that particular code.”

More companies are tracking office attendance, with 69 percent of respondents monitoring office use, up from 45 percent a year ago.

“These increases show that companies have made significant progress on establishing a new baseline for work habits and office attendance after five years of adapting to hybrid work,” Kashyap stated in a news release.

Office attendance averages 2.9 days per week, a figure that continues to lag pre-pandemic levels.

The use of amenities to attract tenants has skyrocketed. Since 2021, CBRE has seen a 56 percent increase in office space allocated to amenities, said Lenny Beaudoin, the firm’s executive managing director for global workplace, design and occupancy.

Office tenants are looking for strong public transportation, ample parking for motor vehicles, strong food and beverage options, and good indoor air quality, the analysts said.

Evidence of improved sentiment among North American office users comes as Portland’s market has continued to lag. Office vacancies have climbed for 11 consecutive quarters, and set record highs, according to Kidder Mathews.

Portland saw 235,192 square feet of negative net absorption during the second quarter of 2025, according to CBRE’s most recent report. Vacancy rose to 26.6 percent but varied widely by submarket.

Tigard and Clackamas recorded less than 12 percent vacancy, while Portland’s central business district and Northwest Portland had more than 36 percent.

Rents in the Portland area rose to $33.11 per square foot on average. The average asking rent for class A space rose to $38.18 per square foot, while class B commanded $29.08 per square foot on average.

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Vacancies in Portland-area office space reached a record-high 15.1 percent during the second quarter of the year, Kidder Mathews stated in a new report.

It was the 11th consecutive quarter of rising vacancies in the Portland market, and the first time that vacancies crested 14 percent.

Leasing activity has slowed just as dramatically, Kidder Mathews reported. It fell nearly 43 percent to 635,000 square feet during the April-to-June period, compared to a year earlier, reaching a record low for the second quarter.

The only period of lower lease volume came in July through September 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s pretty dreary,” said Gary Baragona, Kidder Mathews vice president for research, based in San Francisco.

“There’s still some work to do before that market starts to recover,” he said.

The plunge in office values has brought out bargain hunters. Investment activity grew 22 percent in the first half of 2025 compared to a year earlier, Kidder Mathews reported.

“Although institutional buyers have historically made up over 30 percent of the trades, private buyers and owner-users have accounted for over 90 percent of the transaction volume in the past year,” Kidder Mathews stated.

That fits with recent transactions such as the $45 million sale of the U.S. Bancorp Tower to auto dealer Jeff Swickard by Unico Properties, and the $33 million sale of Montgomery Park to Portland-based family investor Menashe Properties.

Asking rents grew to $29.64 per square foot, Kidder Mathews reported.

Many office users have downsized their space as employees’ hybrid work arrangements mean companies use less space. The average lease size is less than 3,000 square feet — approximately 5 percent below the 10-year average, Kidder Mathews reported.

“That illustrates that companies are trying to right-size their space,” Baragona said.

Large leases have become rare in recent quarters, and that trend is expected to continue, the brokerage reported.

Bucking the trend, some newer properties in Portland such as Block 216 and Eleven West have managed to attract tenants — primarily professional services firms. Architecture firm Populous recently agreed to lease a floor above the Bamboo Sushi restaurant at 404 S.W. 12th Ave., and leave a smaller space in the Central Eastside.

Suburban office space has outperformed urban offerings, but even suburban activity has slowed, Baragona said.

“The optimist in me says the cities that figure out how to reinvest in their urban cores are going to be the ones in front of that recovery cycle,” Baragona said, pointing to encouraging signs in San Francisco and Seattle.

“Portland has a little further to go,” he said. “Portland’s a market where we have yet to see much of a rebound in activity.”

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