LOMA Q1 2017: With a tumultuous 2016 still a vivid memory and a slow start to 2017, does the London office market have what it takes to bounce back? Or will an increasingly political environment and a snap election throw a spanner in the works?
Take-up in London slumped to 2.5m sq ft in the first quarter of 2017, down by 28% on Q4 2016 and by 18% on the same period last year, according to EG’s London Office Market Analysis, with just three significant deals representing more than a fifth of total take-up and the ever-growing tech and creative sector almost a third.
But for David Perowne, senior director of London leasing at CBRE, the performance was more a reflection on a productive end to the year than a depressing first quarter.
“Across London, we saw a huge amount of deal activity towards the back end of 2016, and the vast majority of those deals transacted within that quarter, which is quite unusual,” he said.
“Normally you would expect some transactions to slip into Q1 of the following year, but that didn’t really happen this time. So we were almost starting from scratch at the beginning of the year.”
■ Subscribers to EG can click through to the full analysis examining which London submarkets are likely to see the biggest resurgence, which sectors are signing the most deals and why the City fringe might still be the one to watch.
View the presentation below.
MAIN IMAGE: Chris Hepburn/robertharding/REX/Shutterstock
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