The South Bank’s office market smashed all records for take-up last year, but dwindling supply means this year looks set to drop by a third
Most of 2013’s record-breaking South Bank office take up came from trophy deals in the Shard and Sea Containers House. The forecast for growth in the underlying market looks uncertain and unbalanced, with nearly a third of the market’s stock being secondary space and more than 40% of the South Bank’s supply in one building, the Shard. The worst hit submarket is Waterloo, where 80% of the space is in buildings built before the second world war.
With supply dwindling, take-up is forecast to fall below 1m sq ft this year, two-thirds of 2013’s record-breaking 1.6m sq ft, according to research by Farebrother, which splits the South Bank market into five distinct districts for the first time.
Annual supply of available space over the next two years will struggle to reach more than 200, 000 sq ft.
Could the South Bank be about to face its very own Waterloo?
nadia.elghamry@estatesgazette.com
