Yardi: Miami Has The Nation's Tightest Office Market

Concerns about artificial intelligence's impact on office work has yet to reach the Magic City.

Miami's vacancy rate fell from 15.7% in early 2025 to 12.5% as of April 2026,  the lowest among the top 25 metros, according to a Yardi Matrix report.

The city's vacancy rate is well below the national average of 17.6%, and the only other markets that are close to as tight are Manhattan, at 13.1%, and Los Angeles, at 13.8%.

As available space in Miami has dwindled, its rents have grown to among the most expensive in the country. Its average listing price of $58.41 per SF is 77% higher than the national average of $32.91 and second only to Manhattan's $69.29, according to the report.

"While other markets continue to struggle, Miami vacancy has benefited from robust growth in office-using employment," the report says. "The financial activities sector has performed particularly well, helping sustain office demand as tech layoffs followed the pandemic’s hiring boom."

Finance, banking, insurance and real estate made up 20% of South Florida's leasing activity, while tech companies made up 37%, according to a first-quarter Avison Young office report.

The market has also benefited from expansions of tenants that entered the area following the pandemic, like e-commerce giant Amazon, which signed Wynwood's largest office lease with 50K SF at Wynwood Plaza early last year before expanding to 76K SF a few months later.

And even though new-to-market activity slowed from its peak activity between 2020 and 2022, it is still a leading factor, according to the report.

Within the first two months of 2026, four companies relocated their headquarters to South Florida, including Palantir Technologies, which in February scrapped its plans for a new office in Colorado to move to a Miami coworking space.

Coworking is also expanding, with Industrious signing a 22K SF lease in Coral Gables last month. The Gables has captured an outsized share of leases in recent months as some tenants have been pushed out of trophy space in Brickell and Miami Beach. Landlords have raised rents in turn, with asking rents in the submarket up 14% in Q1 over the previous year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The tight vacancy rate comes against a backdrop of concerns over artificial intelligence and its potential to upend the job market, with "significant implications for office demand," according to the report.

Meta is cutting 8,000 employees, citing a shift in focus on improving efficiency and generative AI. U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced plans to lay off roughly 14% of its workforce, equating to about 700 employees.