Let’s compare retail rent prices per square foot for Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Dekalb Counties. The chart for each county is below, followed by an analysis of what this might mean in regards to COVID-19.

Rent per square foot data from CoStar Group

Though there hasn’t been a drastic change for each county over the past few years (each county has had less than a $10.00 increase since 2000), it is obvious that rent prices have been steadily increasing for the most part over the last 20 years. Even though the overall change is relatively small ($10), increasing rent by even a few dollars really adds up when purchasing a large building and can end up being very costly.

The increases really started to ramp up between 2012-2014 after each county seemed to hit an all-time low, at least for the time period focused on here. Because rent prices were increasing before the pandemic hit, it is hard to say that COVID-19 is completely to blame for these changes. Though that could be one factor that has affected rent prices, it is likely that the prices would have increased regardless since they have been headed up for over five years now in these counties. It is important to keep an eye on rent prices for the remainder of the year and even into the next few years to fully grasp the impact that Coronavirus will have on retail properties in these four counties.

Check out “Atlanta Office Rent Prices by County” to compare office and retail spaces over the past 20 years!