Boston office rents at the very top of the market reached a two-year high in the third quarter of 2026, driven largely by law firms moving into the newest towers, according to JLL data reported by Bisnow on Oct. 9. Average asking rents for top-tier high-rise space stood at $105.02 per square foot, while the citywide average slipped to $66.49, a split that shows how unevenly Boston’s office recovery is playing out.
Back Bay and Downtown Set the Ceiling
The highest asking rents are in the Back Bay, at close to $130 per square foot, about 15% above pre-pandemic levels, JLL research manager Bryan Montgomery told Bisnow. The submarket’s previous peak was $121 per square foot in the third quarter of 2025 for space on the 31st floor or higher. Downtown Boston ranks second and hit its own high-water mark of $110 per square foot in the second quarter of 2026, according to JLL.
“People are paying more for commercial real estate now than they ever have before at the top of the market,” Montgomery told the publication. “That’s only going to continue and intensify.”
Law Firms Lead the Flight to Quality
Ten law firms signed leases in the quarter, many relocating within the central business district, Bisnow reported. The largest was Greenberg Traurig, which signed for roughly 80,000 to 82,000 square feet at Hines’ South Station Tower and is leaving One International Place, its Boston home for 27 years. Bisnow’s deal sheet said the new space is about 20,000 square feet larger than the current office and that the move is expected in late 2027. Hines senior managing director Sarah Hawkins said the decision “underscores the demand for thoughtfully designed, highly amenitized workplaces.”
Greenberg Traurig joins JPMorgan Chase (250,000 square feet), FM Global (57,000) and Citadel (11,000) at South Station Tower, which was completed in 2025 with 680,000 square feet of office space and 166 condominiums. Paul Hastings signed for 52,000 square feet at BXP’s Prudential Center, moving from 200 Clarendon St. Outside the legal sector, engineering firm HNTB took 77,000 square feet at Winthrop Center, leaving 31 St. James St., a building proposed for conversion from offices to housing.
Average Rents Still Slipping
Below the top tier, the picture is softer. JLL put overall asking rents at $66.49 per square foot at the end of the quarter, down from $66.79 a year earlier, and overall Class A rents fell from $76.16 to $74.84. CBRE’s separate third-quarter report put downtown vacancy at 18.5%, with average asking rents of $66.12 and continued weakness in the Seaport, even as leasing reached 1.27 million square feet and new Class A deals made up nearly 80% of activity. We covered those numbers in our downtown Boston office market Q3 report, and the Seaport’s challenges show up in Amazon’s sublease of half its new tower.
Supply is the other half of the story. JLL said availability in Tier 1 high-rise buildings, those built in 2015 or later, fell to 3.2%, with mid-rise and low-rise Tier 1 space at 12.9% and 5.8%. CBRE said no office projects are under construction in Boston. The last big deliveries were South Station Tower and 10 World Trade in the Seaport, which Bisnow said has not announced tenants since opening in 2025.
Montgomery does not expect new towers soon. “We’re not going to see anything break ground by the end of the decade for sure,” he told Bisnow, adding that the top of the market would need “pretty explosive rent growth” before construction could start in the 2030 to 2032 range.
Our Take
This section is analysis and opinion, separate from the reporting above.
Boston now has two office markets. Firms that bill by the hour and recruit on prestige will pay almost any price for a high floor with a view, and with nothing new being built, landlords of those towers hold the cards for years. That is good news for a handful of owners and for the city’s commercial tax base at the top. It is harder news for the older Class B buildings that firms like Greenberg Traurig, Paul Hastings and HNTB are leaving behind. Every move up the skyline opens a hole somewhere else, and the 18.5% vacancy rate will not fall much while that churn continues.
The smartest bet for many of those older buildings is probably not a better lobby but a new use, such as the housing conversion proposed at 31 St. James St. Companies weighing a move should note that rents at the top are rising while the average is still falling. Tenants willing to accept an older, renovated building may have more bargaining power now than at any point since the pandemic, a theme that also runs through our coverage of the Schneider Electric PTC deal and what it means for Seaport headquarters.