Rachael Rothman
- Preliminary Q3 2026 data show that more than 1 in 3 owner-user office deals went to an existing tenant, up from fewer than 1 in 10 in H2 2025.
- Lenders are increasingly unwilling to extend troubled loans, and the office CMBS delinquency rate reached 12.2% in September, near January’s record of 12.3%.
- The median owner-user deal is $7.6 million, and 84% of these transactions are suburban.
- For owners and lenders facing a loan maturity, the building’s own tenant may be a buyer worth approaching.
As office prices reset, one buyer is showing up more often: the tenant.
This trend comes as owners face pressure to resolve challenged properties. Office investment hit a 10-year high in 2025, and lenders are moving away from “extend and pretend.” That shift is evident at Chicago’s Aon Center, where the special servicer “unequivocally denied” the owner’s recent request for a three-year extension. More broadly, the office CMBS delinquency rate reached 12.2% in September, near January’s record of 12.3%. Downtown office prices are 43% below pre-COVID levels, and office cap rates are near their highest since 2011.
For troubled properties, the outcomes vary. Some owners are handing back the keys, while some buildings are selling at deep discounts; one sold nearly 90% below its pre-COVID price. Other properties are being converted or torn down. Still, office prices are up 4% from a year ago.
Not every office purchase is an investment play. Owner-users, including companies, universities, hospitals, and governments buying offices to occupy, were net buyers for six straight quarters through Q3 2026. Their net office acquisitions totaled about $3 billion in the first three quarters of 2026.
Increasingly, that owner-user activity includes tenants purchasing the buildings they occupy. Preliminary Q3 2026 data show that more than 1 in 3 owner-user office deals went to an existing tenant, up from fewer than 1 in 10 in H2 2025. For example:
- Capital Group paid $210 million for the downtown Los Angeles tower it has occupied since 1978, buying from a court-appointed receiver after Brookfield defaulted on a $400 million loan. The tower was appraised at $605 million in 2016.
- Broadcom bought back its Irvine campus for $325 million, ending the lease from its 2017 sale-leaseback. Its landlord paid $355 million in 2020.
Tenant purchases aren’t a cure-all, but they offer owners and lenders another path to a sale. A committed tenant already knows the building and needs the space. For owners and lenders weighing a sale, the first buyer to call may be the one already in the building.
Tenant buyers are based on disclosed tenants. Buyers are counted only when MSCI deal notes or news reports identify them as existing tenants; some tenant purchases may therefore not be captured. Counts: 16 of 44 deals in Q3 2026 (preliminary; closings reported to MSCI through Sept. 18, 2026), 11 of 69 in H1 2026, and 6 of 77 in H2 2025. Q3 2026 owner-user net buying is a Colliers estimate based on MSCI preliminary data, with a range of $0.7 billion to $1.1 billion. Office price figures are from the RCA CPPI through August 2026, the most recent available.
Sources: Colliers Research, MSCI Real Capital Analytics, Trepp, Bloomberg.
Steig Seaward