In an overdue, welcome step, the Real Estate Board of New York’s reports on office building visitation — i.e., physical occupancy by employees — will now be released every month. The REBNY data based on Placer.ai location data was previously issued quarterly.
The September numbers for 350 Manhattan buildings show visitation increased to 66% of pre-pandemic levels, according to REBNY. That was slightly above second-quarter rates and six percentage points higher than in September 2022.
It was also way ahead of Kastle’s oft-quoted but holes-filled “Back to Work Barometer,” which consistently finds Manhattan visitation below 50% of pre-pandemic levels because its survey does not include most properties owned by the largest landlords, which have the highest office attendance.
REBNY director of market data and policy Keith DeCoster said, “As we work with Placier, our goal is always to provide more detail. It took us time to dig through all the different buildings, but we feel confident that moving forward, we can provide monthly data including some week-by-week details.”