Corporate Relocations Drop Sharply From 2021 Peak

Companies are increasingly keeping their headquarters put. 

As of October, only 18 companies had publicly announced relocations last year, according to a December report from CBRE, putting 2023 on track to see the slowest relocation volume in at least five years.

CBRE's report, first reported by CoStar, identified 465 corporate moves since 2018. The number of relocations peaked in 2021 at 127 and then took a steep decline with 63 moves in 2022.

The 18 relocations recorded through October also stood in stark contrast to the years prior to 2021. CBRE recorded 89 moves in 2018, 77 in 2019 and 81 in 2020.

Cost of capital, a macroeconomic condition that makes it harder for companies to sell or sublease their existing headquarters in order to move, is likely a major player in the slowdown, CBRE said.

Other factors likely include high mortgage rates which make it difficult for employees to relocate their homes if required to move with the company, as well as trends toward companies consolidating their existing real estate. CBRE also said it's likely that the moves companies wanted to make already occurred during that pandemic spike.

Of the companies that did relocate, the most cited reason for doing so was for business climate and lower taxes. Of the companies surveyed by CBRE, 110 of those that moved over the last five years cited that category for their reasoning.

Because of this, Texas remains a top choice for corporate relocations even as that dynamic has begun to shift as the state grapples with affordability concerns.

CBRE’s report estimates that a headquarters relocation from Silicon Valley to Austin, for example, “saves 15% to 20% in tech employee wages.” 

Among this year’s tech relocations to the Lone Star State were Inbenta, which moved from the San Francisco area to Allen, Texas, and Informativ, formerly called Credit Bureau Connection, which relocated from Fresno, California, to Frisco, Texas. As of last summer, engineering firm Westwood was planning to move its headquarters from Minnetonka, Minnesota, to Plano, Texas by the end of the year.