Greater Boston office vacancy rate rose to 14.5 percent at the end of first quarter, registering a negative growth for the fifth consecutive quarter, according to a report released today by the Boston office of Lincoln Property Co.

The Cambridge office market, however, bucked the trend with a decline in vacancy rate to 10.4 percent from 10.8 percent at the end of fourth quarter of 2009, and an increase in asking rents during the first quarter of this year, according to the report.

The report tracked 164.24 million square feet of office space across Greater Boston, including Boston, Cambridge, Suburbs and Interstate-495 markets.

Greater Boston direct office vacancy rate rose to 14.5 percent at the end of this quarter as compared with 11.7 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2009. With an additional 5.23 million square feet of sublease office space available, total current office availability (direct and sublease) is 20.5 percent as compared with 19.2 percent a year ago.

With the increase in direct vacancy, the Greater Boston office market recorded 364,300 square feet of negative absorption in the first quarter of 2010, totaling approximately 6 million square feet of negative absorption since the first quarter of 2009.

On a positive note, Cambridge market’s office vacancy, a submarket benefiting from the 2.1 percent year-over-year growth in health and education employment in Massachusetts, fell to 10.4 percent, with an asking rental rate increase to $36.15 per square foot from $35.54 a quarter ago.

"The office real estate market is tightly tied to employment," said Scott D. Faber, director of research at Lincoln Property Co. "In markets that are reliant on certain industry growth, we continue to see parallels between the vacancy rate and the growth, or lack-there-of, in employment."

The Boston Downtown office market, primarily driven by financial activities growth, continued to deliver rising vacancy in the first quarter of 2010 to 10.3 percent.

On the other hand, suburban office growth, which is primarily driven by the technology industry, fell flat in the first quarter of 2010 with a minimal 50,000 square feet of negative absorption in the overall suburban office market.

According to the state Office of Labor and Workforce Development, financial services fell by 5 percent year-over-year, whereas, professional, scientific, and technology services employment remained unchanged over the past six months, thus effectively influencing the Greater Boston office market.

"Although the market has fallen slightly in the first quarter, market conditions are much healthier today than a year ago," said Michael S. Edward, senior vice president and head of brokerage at Lincoln Property Co.’s Boston office. "Sublease space in the Class A market is shrinking, and leasing activity has improved. We will surely see the bottom in 2010, with rental rates hopefully improving by the end of the year."

Sublease availability fell for the third consecutive quarter to 3.2 percent, further indicating that a recovery could be near.