Trulia to cut down office space in San Francisco

 Story by Amanda Bartlett • February 5th, 2023

Online real estate marketplace Trulia is downsizing its San Francisco headquarters, the San Francisco Business Times first reported. 

The subsidiary of Zillow previously occupied nearly one-third of the space at 535 Mission St., a 27-story high-rise that was built in 2014 and leased by Boston Properties. Now, Trulia has reduced its footprint, preserving just two of the six floors it operated out of following the expiration of its lease last year. Boston Properties President Douglas Linde confirmed the company was trimming its space during a fourth-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, per the Business Times. 

SFGATE reached out to a Trulia spokesperson for more information but did not hear back by time of publication. During the call, Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas seemed to suggest a major shift to remote work had impacted the decision. 

“The West Coast is lagging from a return to office perspective and also from a leasing perspective, which is driven by the fact that there’s a much higher percentage of technology users in those markets and those users are not using their office to the same extent that other industries are,” Thomas said. “And so far, they’ve led other industries in terms of layoffs, which impacts space use.”

Other occupants at 535 Mission St. include Eventbrite and One Medical.

At least three other Bay Area companies also cut down their office space at the start of 2023. In January, San Francisco-based DocuSign announced it would shed 57,000 square feet of its headquarters at 221 Main St. after laying off more than 600 employees late last year. Autodesk put 73,000 square feet on the sublease market after moving its headquarters from San Rafael to One Market Plaza in San Francisco and said the decision was made to allow employees to “take advantage of [its] flexible workplace options.” 

Meta also relayed plans to sublease 435,000 square feet of office space at 181 Fremont St. so it could embrace the remote work experience, a spokesperson shared in a statement. 

Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield recently reported that San Francisco’s office vacancy rate is 24%, with more than 86 million square feet of inventory.