North American occupiers have accounted for 1.1m sq ft of take-up in London in 2016 to date, 70% above the 15-year average, according to Colliers.
The advisory firm’s Occupier Activity Index has monitored the effect of global events on transactional activity and found US occupiers seem unphased by Brexit, accounting for 82% of overseas take-up this year so far, in contrast to 58% in the past 15 years.
This year has seen major deals to Apple, Wells Fargo, Thomson Reuters, Jefferies International, Amazon, Capital One, Oaktree Capital, HCA and Gap.
While Apple (500,000 sq ft), Thomson Reuters (350,000 sq ft) and Wells Fargo (220,000 sq ft) could be seen as skewing take-up figures there are other requirements in the market.
Mckinsey and Boston Consulting Group are both close to securing major relocations with a combined total of 250,000 sq ft. In addition, Hogan Lovells, Splunk, WSP, LinkedIn, Expedia, Industrial Light and Magic, Walmart, Yahoo and Born Group are all undertaking active searches with a combined total close to 1.5m sq ft.
In contrast, in 2016 to date, deals to UK occupiers are 9% below the 10-year average, and demand from European occupiers is more than 50% down on the equivalent period in 2015.
Listen below to Guy Grantham of Colliers International discuss the strength of demand in London from US occupiers.
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