The seventh central London office market?

Stratford has had a level of lettings in the past two months that any office market would be proud of. But should the combined E15 and E20 postcode area be considered the seventh central London office market? If nothing else, the level of take-up warrants debate on the matter. In the year to date, 676,500 sq ft has been let in Stratford. Those deals include the headline grabbing Financial Conduct Authority and TfL lettings. In 2013, Stratford take-up was 83,918 sq ft with the biggest deal a 41,910 sq ft letting to Network Rail, a body that would be scrutinised for exuberant spending in a manner that the FCA and TfL would also be subject to. The year before, 2012, brought two 20,000 sq ft plus lettings which were let to the London Legacy Development Corporation and another unnamed Olympic body. You can see by now the common thread – Stratford is emerging as the prudent location of choice for public or statutory bodies of one type or another. There is nothing wrong with that – you find your niche and make it work. The next issue for me is one of proximity. At present, the six core markets that we look at – City Core, City Fringe, Docklands, Midtown, Southern Fringe and West End – sit alongside each other with one starting where another ends. Stratford does not fit easily into that jigsaw. Looking at Stratford on a map, it is hard to argue that it is a central London office market. However, when Crossrail comes on stream it will reduce the journey time from Stratford to Tottenham Court Road to 13 minutes, and the journey to Liverpool Street will be just seven minutes. Crossrail has the potential to change our perception of what we consider to be central London And what of available space? EGi data points to 3.7m sq ft available in Stratford, but of that figure, 96% is either yet to go under construction or is a long way from completion. This suggests to me that the market is far from established. Construction of this space will be dependent on prelets and it is only in the past month or two that those deals have started to happen. Back to the original question of whether this is the seventh London office market. For me? No, not yet. While take-up has been strong this year, it is not yet sustained. The market is yet to be built out and the proximity is not there. While it is not easy to argue that Stratford is currently a central London market, it is easier to agree that it is of very real significance to the central London office market as it offers a viable alternative – let us consider the Docklands market which has lost out on the two key FCA and TfL deals. Only 30 years ago, Docklands would not have been considered a central London market either – Stratford needs time, momentum and Crossrail. Tom Pilkington is head of London Offices Research EGi