Central London offices take-up jumps in May – CBRE
The performance of Central London’s various submarkets for office space was varied in May, says CBRE in its latest monthly overview. While transactions jumped 24% year-on-year to 777,900 sq ft, there were falls in the City and South Bank but large gains elsewhere.
Take-up was flat on a six-month rolling average basis overall, and within this the City market saw a 6% decline while the West End rose 12%. There were only five deals of more than 20,000 sq ft but two of the largest deals so far this year helped to boost transaction volumes for the month. These were Google taking taking all remaining space at Central St Giles
(157,800 sq ft) and Double Negative taking 86,500 sq ft at 160 Great Portland Street, W1, CBRE says. Under offers rose 12% in May to 2.6m sq ft, with all submarkets apart from Docklands and the West End showing an increase in the amount of space under offer.
Availability across Central London was also fairly flat at 13.8m sq ft, with the overall availability rate remaining at 6.3%. There was a 4% fall in supply in the West End but availability in the City rose to 6.1m sq ft. Digby Flower, head of Central London agency, said the tightening availability was expected to drive an increase in the number of pre-lettings, “as evidenced by the recent announcement of Aon going under offer on 191,700 sq ft at The Leadenhall Building”.
Total supply was broadly unchanged in May at 13.8m sq ft. CBRE says there was an 8% increase in active demand across Central London last month.
