Central London office take-up tops 2m sq ft for third consecutive quarter
Central London office take-up exceeded 2m sq ft for the third successive quarter during the opening months of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Take-up across the central London submarkets hit 2.19m sq ft in the quarter to 31 March, as law firms, banks and tech firms jockeyed for position in an increasingly oversubscribed market.
The legal sector was the most active, accounting for 19% of deals during the quarter, bolstered by Hogan Lovells’ prelet of 266,000 sq ft at 18-20 Holborn Viaduct, EC1.
Central London office take-up exceeded 2m sq ft for the third successive quarter during the opening months of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Take-up across the central London submarkets hit 2.19m sq ft in the quarter to 31 March, as law firms, banks and tech firms jockeyed for position in an increasingly oversubscribed market.
The legal sector was the most active, accounting for 19% of deals during the quarter, bolstered by Hogan Lovells’ prelet of 266,000 sq ft at 18-20 Holborn Viaduct, EC1.
The media and technology sector accounted for 17% of leasing volumes, with banking and finance accounting for 16%, as did professional services.
The research by Cushman & Wakefield found that 752,000 sq ft of the overall activity was in the West End, where no transactions over 50,000 sq ft occurred.
The City recorded 1.3m sq ft leased during the quarter, its highest Q1 figure since 2018, including four lettings over 50,000 sq ft. Overall, central London take-up was 4% above the five-year Q1 average.
The robust leasing activity caused supply and overall vacancy rates to start falling. Vacancy peaked at 8.27% in the final months of last year – the highest level since 2004 – but came down to 8.18% in the most recent quarter, to 23.2m sq ft.
Ben Cullen, head of offices UK at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “It has been a strong start to the year for the London office market, continuing the gathering momentum from 2021. There is further encouragement for the market in the fact that the quarter ended with 3.4m sq ft of space under offer, which hasn’t been seen since before the pandemic.”
Heena Gadhavi from Cushman & Wakefield’s office insight team added: “Across central London, tenant-controlled supply has also been declining steadily, accounting for 23% of total available space being marketed, a significant reduction on the 37% recorded in Q1 2021.
“However, we are aware of some additional tenant-controlled supply due to enter the market over the coming months and will be actively monitoring this to see if any trends emerge.”
See which individuals are currently the top dealmakers in each of the London submarkets >>
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