City leads London office leasing surge
Moves in the City of London have helped the capital’s office leasing market to deliver its highest number of quarterly deals since Q3 2023, with 489 businesses signing new leases.
The Square Mile accounted for the lion’s share of deals, at 54%, according to Devono’s quarterly The Occupier report. The submarket raked in a total of 1.7m sq ft of leases, a third more than in the previous quarter.
Significant transactions made a return as three “mega-deals” for more than 100,000 sq ft bolstered quarterly leasing volumes.
Moves in the City of London have helped the capital’s office leasing market to deliver its highest number of quarterly deals since Q3 2023, with 489 businesses signing new leases.
The Square Mile accounted for the lion’s share of deals, at 54%, according to Devono’s quarterly The Occupier report. The submarket raked in a total of 1.7m sq ft of leases, a third more than in the previous quarter.
Significant transactions made a return as three “mega-deals” for more than 100,000 sq ft bolstered quarterly leasing volumes.
The technology sector extended its lead over financial services as the busiest sector by two percentage points compared with the previous quarter. Tech accounted for 24% of activity and financial services took 21%, while professional services activity dropped by 12 percentage points compared with the previous quarter to 10%.
The tech sector also accounted for two of the quarter’s mega-deals, as Revolut leased 113,000 sq ft in Canary Wharf and Amazon leased 180,000 sq ft in Shoreditch.
The other mega-deal, the largest of the quarter, came from investment manager Citadel, which leased 250,000 sq ft at 2 Finsbury Avenue, EC2.
Despite a decline of 1 percentage point, the report noted that office availability was more than 24m sq ft for a fifth consecutive quarter and rose to its highest level since 2009 in the West End. Demand was focused on grade-A space, which made up 44% of all leases in the quarter, echoing recent research by Cushman & Wakefield.
Devono found that second-hand space made up the overwhelming majority of leases, at 82%, which the agency suggested reflects a trend towards cost-effective yet sustainable and well-equipped office spaces.
The agency said positive market momentum could continue, with growing business optimism and a stable economic outlook, though the interplay between availability, demand and quality will prove decisive.
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