Turning specifically to the global office leasing market, JLL Research reported that activity in the third quarter was down 46% from a year earlier, reflecting an improvement from Q2, but a continuation of subdued demand.
Asia-Pacific recorded a decrease in activity of only 5% relative to last year while EMEA and the United States were down 52% and 55% respectively.
Vacancy rates moved up across all regions in Q3, so the global vacancy right now recorded at 12.1%, reflecting a 90 basis point increase.
Declines in investment sales decelerated in the third quarter as global volumes down 44% compared to the same period last year.
Consolidated revenue fell 12% to $4 billion and fee revenue declined 23% to $1.4 billion, in local currency.
Adjusted EBITDA of $244 million represented a decline of 19% from the prior year although adjusted EBITDA margin increased 90 basis points to 17.4% in local currency, driven by cost mitigation initiatives as well as government relief program.
Adjusted net income totaled $156 million for the quarter and adjusted diluted earnings per share totaled $2.99.
Corporate Solutions, again, demonstrated its ability to withstand challenging market conditions, posting a modest fee revenue decline of 2% for the quarter.
Strong earnings and cash flow management led to another standout quarter for cash generation, as evidenced by $320 million of net debt reduction, resulting in our leverage now below pre-HFF transaction level.
In the third quarter, we repurchased $25 million worth of shares, bringing our year-to-date cash return to shareholders to $50 million.
Our diversified business continues to be impacted in different ways by the pandemic's economic shock.
Our consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 90 basis points to 17.4%, driven by our ongoing cost management actions and a 240 basis point impact from various government relief programs globally, partially offset by lower transactional revenue.
Consolidated leasing fee revenue declined 30%.
We compared favorably with the 46% decline in global office leasing activity, reflecting the strength of our platform.
According to JLL Research, the U.S. office market has seen an increase in the share of lease activity from renewals to 55% in the third quarter from 29% in 2019, as well as a reduction in aggregate effective rents of roughly 7% in mid-March, through both an increase in free rent concessions and a decline in starting rents relative to pre-COVID.
Looking ahead, our fourth quarter U.S. gross leasing pipeline increased 16% from three months prior.
Capital Markets' fee revenue declined 43%, driven by an over 50% decline in investment advisory and debt placement.
Global investment volume dropped 44%.
As Christian mentioned, our Corporate Solutions business was down 2% in the quarter and flat year-to-date.
Our ongoing cost mitigation actions and a 180 basis point benefit from government relief programs drove an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.9% compared with 19.3% a year earlier.
EMEA leasing, while down 24% materially outperformed the approximate 50% decline in market volumes.
Including a 120 basis point benefit from government relief program, the adjusted EBITDA margin was 2.7% compared with 6.1% a year earlier.
Including a 710 basis point net benefit from government relief programs, the adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.2% compared with 14.2% a year earlier.
Turning to LaSalle; fee revenue was down 2%.
Advisory fees, which are annuity like and comprised approximately 80% of LaSalle's fee revenue this quarter grew 4%.
Equity earnings were $8 million, driven mostly by our co-investment in a publicly traded REIT in Japan.
LaSalle's AUM totaled $66 billion at quarter end, sequentially up about $1 billion.
Year-to-date through October, we have taken actions that will result in over $135 million of annualized fixed cost savings.
Separately, our expense management focus delivered over $240 million of non-permanent savings over the first nine months of 2020, including about $180 million from cost mitigation actions and $67 million from government relief.
Pivoting to our balance sheet; the sequential improvement in earnings and modest capex and investment spending drove a $320 million reduction to net debt, which ended the quarter at $752 million.
At the end of September, leverage was 0.8 times, down from 1.1 times at the end of June, and just below levels prior to the HFF acquisition, one quarter ahead of our initial expectation.
We have nearly $2.8 billion of liquidity, including approximately $440 million of cash and 85% of capacity available on our $2.75 billion revolver.

Summary:
Adjusted net income totaled $156 million for the quarter and adjusted diluted earnings per share totaled $2.99.
Our diversified business continues to be impacted in different ways by the pandemic's economic shock.