Rising unemployment caused by the recession in the US is having a massive impact on the office property sector with rents suffering huge falls. San Francisco and New York are among the most affected, various reports indicate. Job losses mean that companies are returning empty space to the market. Office property rents in San Francisco suffered a massive 24% decline in the first quarter from a year earlier, the biggest decline since the dot-com crash in 2001, according to a new report from Colliers International. The average rent fell from $50.92 to $38.80 a square foot for Class A space and the office vacancy rate rose to 13.2% from 12.6% in the previous quarter and up from 10.2% a year earlier. ... Almost half of the largest companies in the San Francisco Bay Area plan to cut staff in the next six months, said John Grubb, spokesman for the Bay Area Council, which represents the region's biggest employers including Chevron, Google, Yahoo!, Safeway and Wells Fargo. Vacancies are expected to increase in the second quarter as San Francisco-based Charles Schwab, the largest independent US brokerage by client assets, and Macy's, the second-biggest department store chain, abandon space in San Francisco. Commercial property purchases in San Francisco are 'nearly non-existent' as surging defaults and reduced availability of debt curtail acquisitions, according to the Colliers report. San Francisco's first quarter rent decline, the biggest since a 49% drop in the fourth quarter of 2001, followed a tumble of 22% in the fourth quarter, Colliers added. http://www.propertywire.com/news/north-america/recession-us-commercial-property-200904102921.html