August 1, 2016

By: Katherine Billingsley, Research Analyst, JLL

The East Bay is emerging into the Bay Area spotlight, proving to be a viable contender to neighboring markets.

San Francisco’s high prices are prompting migrations, expansions, or partial moves into the East Bay. East Bay’s total average asking rents are nearly 50% less than San Francisco’s.

Our tenant migration list has exceeded 1.7 million square feet during the current cycle (since 2010), with a majority of these tenants coming from San Francisco and 48% coming from tech and consumer products.

Download our Summer 2016 release of the East Bay Migration Outlook highlighting the spillover effect taking place in the local office market from high-priced San Francisco. In this report you will find:

1. Industry breakdowns – charts and graphs that illustrate tenant migrations, expansions, or partial moves into the East Bay by industry.
2. The list – A running list of companies that have migrated or expanded into the East Bay from other markets since the beginning of the cycle (2010 to present).

Report Key Points:

• Since 2010, more than 1.7 million square feet of migration or expansion into the East Bay has occurred. A majority of these tenants came from San Francisco (nearly 90.0 percent).

• The cost of living in San Francisco has translated into a stronger demand for housing in the East Bay, especially in transit-oriented locations. Company decision-makers realize the majority of their employment base resides in the East Bay, incentivizing them to consider relocating or expanding their operations to leverage the accessible talent pool.

• Limited availabilities in core East Bay markets have slightly tapered demand from San Francisco, more notably in markets such as Oakland-CBD where vacancy is below 4.0 percent. Despite shrinking availabilities in Oakland, tenants still have options in submarkets along the 880 and 680 Corridors, and outer-market tenant demand remain above 1.0 million square feet.