Downtown Seattle office vacancy reached 34.7% in Q4 2025, according to CBRE figures reported by GeekWire on Jan. 14, 2026. The market lost 257,879 square feet of occupied office space during the quarter even as technology companies signed new leases. Those deals did not outweigh the broader decline in occupied space.
What the Q4 2025 figures show
GeekWire reported that CBRE put downtown Seattle office vacancy at 34.7% in Q4 2025. The same report said occupied space fell by 257,879 square feet during the quarter, with tenant rightsizing and lower average space requirements cited as explanations.
These are secondary reports of CBRE figures, not independently verified estimates. GeekWire did not provide CBRE’s market boundaries, vacancy definition, or calculation methodology, so the percentage should be read as the figure reported for downtown Seattle rather than as a measure whose precise scope is established here.
New leases continued alongside rising vacancy
Several technology-company deals were reported in Q4 2025, but new leases and overall occupancy measure different things: a tenant can sign for space while other businesses give up more space than new or expanding tenants take.
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| Company | Q4 2025 deal reported by GeekWire | Reported space |
|---|---|---|
| Impinj | Renewed and expanded at 400 Fairview | 73,638 square feet |
| DAT Solutions | Took sublease space at the Maritime Building | 51,777 square feet |
| Docker | Took sublease space at the Maritime Building | 33,757 square feet |
The deal sizes show continued leasing activity, not a market-wide recovery. The reported reduction in occupied downtown Seattle space during Q4 was larger than any one of these leases, and the available figures do not establish the net occupied-space effect of all leases and departures combined.
How Bellevue compared with Seattle
Downtown Bellevue vacancy was 25.4% at the end of Q4 2025, compared with 16.8% one year earlier, according to Broderick Group figures reported by GeekWire. The reported rate was lower than Seattle’s 34.7% for the same quarter, but Bellevue’s vacancy had risen year over year.
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GeekWire also quoted a Broderick Group report: “Notably, a growing number of new-to-market entrants … are choosing the Eastside over Seattle, drawn by Bellevue’s modern office inventory, business friendly climate and skilled technology workforce,” Broderick Group wrote. The quote gives the group’s stated explanation for Eastside interest; it does not establish how much that preference contributed to either market’s vacancy. The source did not provide a like-for-like figure for Bellevue’s occupied-space change.
What the reported causes do—and do not—establish
GeekWire’s account connects downtown Seattle’s pressure with hybrid work, tenants using less space, tech layoffs, and leaner teams. These factors offer context for rightsizing and lower space requirements, but the report does not quantify the contribution of any one factor. The vacancy and occupied-space figures describe the market outcome; they do not, by themselves, measure why each tenant changed its footprint.
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For personal-finance readers, the figures are a local business and employment-market signal, not a direct measure of household finances or a forecast of job losses, rents, or property values. The Q4 2025 data also should not be treated as a current 2026 vacancy rate.
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GeekWire published its report on Jan. 14, 2026, citing CBRE for Seattle and Broderick Group for Bellevue and the Eastside commentary. Its account does not include the firms’ underlying reports or methodology, so the reported vacancy rates should be attributed to those sources rather than presented as independently audited measures. Read GeekWire’s Jan. 14, 2026 report.
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