Central London office take-up totalled 2.3m sq ft in the first quarter of 2018 – up 14% on the previous year.
JLL research found take-up in the City reached 1.3m sq ft, compared to 860,000 sq ft in the West End and 215,000 sq ft in east London.
The total figure represents a 5% increase on the average Q1 total over the past 10 years.
Flexible office providers accounted for 26%, or 600,000 sq ft, of total take-up.
TMT, professional services and banking and finance all recorded similar levels of take-up, representing 22% (512,000 sq ft), 21% (480,000 sq ft) and 20% (469,000 sq ft) respectively.
More than 28% of the transactions completed were undertaken on a prelet basis, continuing to erode future supply.
JLL said this was a trend that is expected to define the rest of the year, as 44% of the space currently under offer in central London is either currently under construction or off-plan.
The research found occupier demand remains robust across central London and currently totals 14.1m sq ft. The banking and finance sector has the largest share of active demand (27%), followed by professional services (22%), the service industry (20%) and TMT (19%).
Neil Prime, head of central London offices at JLL, said: “Given the significant levels of take-up that we saw in the final quarter of 2017, these figures are impressive and suggest that the market retains its attractiveness to occupiers despite the ongoing political disruptions.
“In addition to a strong first quarter, our research has identified that there is currently 3.5m sq ft of space under offer across central London, representing the largest amount of space under offer for a decade.”
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