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Industrial leasing activity dropped 26 percent during the second quarter, confirming softening in the once-overheated Greater Boston market.

The availability rate rose to 6.2 percent while developers pursue 3.4 million square feet of speculative projects, more than half of which are located in the Route 495 South submarket.

“The high cost of debt as well as lingering economic uncertainty are key factors delaying tenants’ leasing decisions,” CBRE researchers wrote in the Boston metro industrial report tracking second-quarter activity.

Average asking rents rose 16 cents to $15.63 per square foot on a triple-net basis.

The second quarter activity included 1 million square feet of new industrial leases and 1.1 million square feet of renewals, according to CBRE.

Locus Robotics inked the biggest new lease of the quarter, totaling nearly 157,500 square feet at 100 Fordham Road in Wilmington. The speculative project is being developed by Carlisle Capital.

Well-capitalized developers are moving forward with speculative projects.

Greystar broke ground in October on its first industrial development in Massachusetts, a 413,000-square-foot distribution center at 798 North Bedford St. in East Bridgewater.

Hines is targeting the last-mile delivery market with development of Chelsea Point, a 146,409-square-foot facility that broke ground this spring at 250 Marginal St. in Chelsea after receiving $57.9 million in construction financing from J.P. Morgan.

And National Development broke ground on a 210,600-square-foot spec warehouse and distribution center at 586 Manley St. in West Bridgewater.

The current pace of activity is stronger than the pre-COVID period in early 2019, the report noted, before the pandemic generated increased demand for e-commerce activity. But the downturn in current demand is expected to continue throughout 2023 because of macroeconomic uncertainty, CBRE predicts.