London Office Lettings Market August 2019

Central London office lettings in August 2019 reached 925,000 sq ft, from 35 mid-large size office transactions (5,000 sq ft+) during the month. The August 2019 deals volume figure is just below the current monthly London average of 1m sq ft.

August was characterised by 12 office deals over 20,000 sq ft, which were led by Convene’s 99,300 sq ft now confirmed pre-let at 22 Bishopsgate, EC3; Nationwide’s 88,000 sq ft deal at The Post Building, WC1 and Spaces’s 78,000 sq ft pre-refurbishment deal at 68 King William Street, EC4

Financial services topped the table of lettings by sector, compiled by Metropolis, underpinned by lettings to Nationwide, Bank of Montreal and Intermediate Capital. This was followed by professional services led by deals to law firms Cooley, Kingsley Napley and Kirkland & Ellis. The business services sector was also prominent with more deals to Spaces and WeWork.

Office deals ‘under offer’ in central London fell slightly to 3.5m sq ft, but pending deal volumes are healthy in nearly all sub-markets, with a number of impending deals in solicitor’s hands.

By area, the City accounted for 71% of the office floorspace let in August 2019 at 653,000 sq ft. The West End saw 75,000 sq ft of take-up. Midtown contributed 151,000 sq ft of lettings and Southbank 30,000 sq ft. Current London office demand is calculated to be around 3.8m sq ft in the City and 3.3m sq ft in the West End.

The volume of grade A (newly built or refurbished office space) let during the month, reached 613,000 sq ft sq ft (66% of the monthly total), as transactions for new space maintained the recent strong showing. Availability is dominated by secondhand space in all London markets.

The large number of upcoming lease events in the core has been a key driver to mover activity. Metropolis research is currently monitoring 620 ‘live’ London office requirements, including a large volume of requirements from the banking and finance sectors, with pending deals for space of up to 1.5m sq ft due to sign in the next few months.