New construction to lift Manhattan office rents in 2018: Report

NEW YORK: The largest amount of new construction to hit Manhattan since the 1980s will lift asking rents this year for office space in New York as demand likely continues to grow faster than the U.S. average, executives from Cushman & Wakefield said on Wednesday.

"(New York) is still a magnate for corporations from around the world and that will allow New York to continue to grow even if job growth slows elsewhere in the country," said Ken McCarthy, principal economist at the real estate services company in a media webcast.

Tuesday's announcement by Discovery Communications Inc to relocate its global headquarters to New York next year from Silver Spring, Maryland, where it employs 1,300 people, is the latest example, McCarthy said.

The desirability among young professionals to live in city centers benefits New York, as does the overall growth of the U.S. economy, which McCarthy said was on track this year to post its best annual performance since the current expansion began in 2010.