Entrepreneurs may be feeling the economic pinch but they can still lower their costs by taking advantage of the reduced office rents even in New York locations. Business in New York has slowed down and landlords have no other choice but to lower down the rents in the face of an increasing number of empty office spaces.

New York real estate research firm Reis Inc said the rental for office space in the state went down by 1.2% during the last quarter of 2008 when taking into account free rents and other landlord concessions. This is considered the largest reduction since 2003 and after the 10.6% rise in rentals last 2007.

The further reduction of rents reflects the woes being faced by those who have heavily invested in commercial property construction and development using their credit. A lot of investors who relied on continued rent growth projections failed to recoup their investments because the reduced demand could not justify the expected rent increases.