South Florida is scheduled to add roughly 1.01 million square feet of medical office space from the fourth quarter of 2026 through the first half of 2027, according to Blanca Commercial Real Estate’s third-quarter market report, which draws on RevistaMed data. Health system-affiliated projects account for 97% of the region’s 1.28 million square feet under construction. With much of that space slated for health systems’ own use or already preleased, Blanca expects the greater leasing pressure to fall on older properties as practices consolidate into new facilities.

Broward Offers An Early Look At The Shift

Broward County accounted for 69% of the region’s 255,315 square feet of third-quarter net absorption. Two openings helped drive that activity. Memorial Healthcare System moved into its second medical office building at Memorial Hospital Miramar, and Broward Health opened its first freestanding emergency department in Sunrise.

Blanca expects roughly 420,700 square feet of health system medical office space to open in Broward between March and June 2027. As those buildings fill, occupancy at existing properties will help show how readily the market can re-lease space that relocating practices leave behind.

Palm Beach Leads Rent Growth As Miami-Dade Holds The Highest Rents

Palm Beach County posted the region’s fastest year-over-year rent growth within the same buildings, at 4.2%, even as occupancy remained below its year-earlier level. The county also has two of the largest outpatient projects on the fourth-quarter delivery schedule, including NYU Langone Health’s approximately 181,500-square-foot Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center in downtown West Palm Beach and the 80,000-square-foot UHS Palm Beach Gardens Medical Plaza I.

Miami-Dade’s medical office occupancy rose for a third consecutive quarter to 94.2%. The county also had the region’s highest average asking base rent, at $39.43 per square foot on a triple-net basis. Across the three counties, average asking base rent reached $32.52 per square foot, up 8.1% year over year. Within the same buildings, rents rose 3.3%, a measure that strips out changes in the mix of properties.

For practices looking to lease, the next wave of openings could bring more previously occupied suites to market, particularly in Broward and Palm Beach. For landlords, the test will be how quickly those suites find new tenants once the health systems move.

Source: Blanca Commercial Real Estate