Medical Office Rent Per Square Foot 2026: $25.46 Average

The average medical office in the United States asked a record $25.46 per square foot in the second quarter of 2026, up 1.3% from a year earlier, according to CBRE Research. CBRE put national vacancy at 9.8%, which is 11 basis points lower than in the second quarter of 2025.

National asking rent and vacancy

CBRE's Q2 2026 report covers 59 medical outpatient building markets. Louisville posted the largest year-over-year rent increase at 11.0%, followed by Salt Lake City at 8.1% and Orange County, California at 7.8%. The national figure grew far more slowly, at 1.3%.

Medical office rents have held up better than rents for ordinary office space. CBRE reports that medical office asking rents sit 8.6% above their Q1 2021 average, while traditional office rents sit 6.9% above theirs. MMCG Invest, citing CBRE's Q1 2026 data, puts traditional office vacancy at 18.6%, nearly double the medical figure. MMCG also notes that national medical office vacancy has stayed between 9.5% and 10.5% for a decade.

With 90.2% of space occupied nationally, a landlord has little reason to cut a quoted rate for a single tenant.

Rent and vacancy in four markets

The table sets CBRE's national figures beside three Texas markets that Matthews reported for Q2 2026 using CoStar data.

Market	Vacancy	Asking rent per sq ft	Rent change, year over year	Source
United States	9.8%	$25.46	+1.3%	CBRE Research, Q2 2026
Houston	15.4% to 16.3%	$30.55	-0.8%	Matthews, CoStar, Q2 2026
Austin	10.3%	$38.10 to $39.43	+1.4%	Matthews, CoStar, Q2 2026
San Antonio	12.3%	$29.99	+0.1%	Matthews, CoStar, Q2 2026

Matthews gives two vacancy figures for Houston and two rent figures for Austin in different sections of its reports, so the table shows both ends. CBRE and CoStar use different methods, so compare the rows with care.

San Antonio is the softest of the three. Vacancy there rose for a third straight quarter to 12.27%, rent grew only 0.13% year over year, and net absorption was negative 18,423 square feet. Austin absorbed 87,513 square feet in the same quarter while 228,685 square feet was under construction. Houston had 85,510 square feet under construction. MMCG, citing Transwestern and Cresa data from May 2026, lists Tulsa at 0.9% vacancy and Suburban Maryland at 12.5%, the two ends of its metro range.

What a lease costs at three practice sizes

Annual base rent is the rate times the square footage. The table below applies three published rates to three practice sizes. These are calculations from the rates above, not quotes.

Practice size	At $25.46 (U.S. average)	At $29.99 (San Antonio)	At $30.55 (Houston)
3,000 sq ft	$76,380	$89,970	$91,650
4,000 sq ft	$101,840	$119,960	$122,200
6,000 sq ft	$152,760	$179,940	$183,300

Source: author calculation from CBRE Research (Q2 2026) and Matthews with CoStar (Q2 2026).

The gap between the national average and Houston is $5.09 per square foot. For a 4,000 square foot practice that is $20,360 a year, and for a 6,000 square foot practice it is $30,540. Escalators add to the bill. MMCG's base case projects rent growth of 2.0% to 4.0% a year through 2031. At 3.0%, a $101,840 rent bill rises by $3,055 in year two.

Ask every landlord whether a quote is full service or triple net. Under a triple net lease, property taxes, insurance and maintenance come on top of the rate.

Why new space costs more

MMCG, citing CBRE and Revista, reports an average asking rent of $33.06 per square foot for new construction against $24.78 for existing buildings. That is a premium of about 33.0%. New supply is also thin. CBRE counted 439,000 square feet of completions in Q2 2026, which is 76.0% below the five-year quarterly average. Completions have fallen for four quarters in a row, and CBRE names high construction costs and interest rates as the cause. The trailing four-quarter total is 3.2 million square feet.

Demand keeps growing. CBRE recorded 1.18 million square feet of net absorption in Q2, the fifth straight quarter of positive demand. CBRE also reports that ambulatory healthcare employment grew 2.7% year over year to 9.23 million jobs, against 0.3% for total non-farm employment. Ambulatory employers added 48,700 jobs in the quarter and 245,200 over the year.

Only 2.7 million square feet is under construction across the 59 markets. Chicago led Q2 absorption at 460,000 square feet, followed by Phoenix at 261,000 and Houston at 244,000. Twenty-nine of the 59 markets had positive absorption.

What building prices show about rent pressure

Investors value medical buildings on the rent they collect, so sale data shows how owners price space. CBRE reports an average sale price of $307 per square foot in Q2 2026, which is 57.0% above the $196 average for traditional office. The medical price rose $6 or 2.0% in a year, and it peaked at $374 in Q3 2022.

The average cap rate was 7.1%, up 4 basis points, and it has stayed between 6.9% and 7.1% since Q2 2024. Investment volume reached $2.7 billion in the quarter, up 24.0%, and $14.4 billion over four quarters. The Southeast led the four-quarter total at $4.0 billion, and the West led Q2 at $793 million.

CBRE's Q2 2026 average sale price was $437 per square foot in the West, $310 in the Midwest and $285 in the Southeast. It was $255 in the Southwest, $229 in the Northeast and $186 in the Mid-Atlantic, against a national average of $307.

Sources

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