West End office take-up leaps

Office take-up in London’s West End is up by a fifth on last year’s levels, with bigger deals back on the table. Occupiers struck deals for a combined 830,000 sq ft across the capital during November, said Savills, taking the 11-month 2024 total to 8.6m sq ft, up 14% year-on-year. Active requirements also jumped, with an additional 2.2m sq ft from the insurance and financial sectors alone during the fourth quarter. In the West End, 360,164 sq ft was signed for across 23 transactions, leaving year-to-date take-up a fifth ahead of a year ago at 3.2m sq ft. Savills said the number of 15,000 sq ft-plus transactions completed in November was at the highest level since December last year. In the City, November take-up of 470,695 sq ft across 39 deals brought the year-to-date total to 5.4m sq ft, which was down 3% on last year. Big deals have included Allianz signing a 15-year lease at Kirsh Group’s 15 Bishopsgate, EC2; Industrious taking almost 41,000 sq ft across four floors at Beijing Capital Development Holdings’ 30 Crown Place, EC2; and Creative Artists Agency’s prelet of the entirety of Capital 38’s 21 Bloomsbury Street, WC1.  Photo by Nicolas McComber/iStock