The MetroWest office market shrank slightly in total occupied square footage in the first quarter of the year, according to Boston real estate agency NAI Hunneman.
The region’s vacancy rate, 17.6 percent for I-495 suburbs like Marlborough and Hopkinton and 15.6 percent for Framingham and Natick, was also higher than the Boston area in total and the area’s suburban rate, according to the report released Wednesday.
Total occupied space rose slightly in the area NAI Hunneman defines as the Framingham-Natick region, which also includes Ashland, Sudbury and Sherborn. The area added just 16,000 square feet, or about 0.3 percent.
The 495 West region fell by the same rate, losing 32,000 square feet in a larger market. The 495 West region includes Marlborough, Hudson, Northborough, Southborough, Westborough, Berlin, Hopkinton, Holliston and Upton.
Boston and Cambridge continued to carry the region, with vacancy rates in some neighborhoods at 3 percent or below, according to the NAI Hunneman report. In all, the Boston region had a vacancy rate of 11.5 percent, and added 74,000 square feet. Its vacancy rate a year prior was 11.2 percent.
