The recovery in the United States office market is spreading beyond major cities and premium buildings, according to new research from a Bermudian-domiciled commercial real estate group.

Cushman & Wakefield Ltd said national office vacancy declined year-on-year for the second consecutive quarter, while demand reached its highest level in six years on a four-quarter rolling basis.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed company moved the place of incorporation of its parent company from England and Wales to Bermuda in November last year. The change was to reduce the costs and administrative burden of regulation in both Britain and the US.

Cushman & Wakefield’s second-quarter US Office MarketBeat report found that vacancy fell both quarterly and annually in 49 of the 92 markets monitored by the company.

National vacancy declined ten basis points from a year earlier to 20.1 per cent.

Although net absorption — the change in occupied office space — was negative by 360,000 square feet during the quarter, revisions to earlier figures lifted the four-quarter rolling total to positive 14.3 million square feet.

That marked the seventh successive quarter of improvement and the strongest result since 2020.

San Francisco, Orange County and Midtown Manhattan recorded the largest annual declines in vacancy.

David Smith, head of Americas insights at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The first half of 2026 reinforced that the office recovery is no longer confined to a handful of leading markets or trophy assets.

“Demand has improved for seven consecutive quarters, vacancy is beginning to decline across more than half of the markets we track and the amount of available sublease space continues to shrink.”

Vacant sublease space fell 15.4 per cent year-on-year to 95.6 million square feet, placing it 28 per cent below its peak in the first quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, office completions declined 24 per cent from a year earlier. The four-quarter total fell to 15.6 million square feet, the lowest since 2012.

The supply of US office space is also contracting as older properties are converted or redeveloped. Total inventory has fallen by 33 million square feet, or 0.6 per cent, over the past five quarters.

Mr Smith said limited construction, a smaller inventory base and more demand should lead to gradual improvement during the remainder of the year.