Central London Office Space Sees December Boost Over Rest of UK

Marylebone_High_Street West End London office market

Central London office space see a boost in take-up for Q4. The West End in particular has seen a boost in investment.

Office space take-up in Central London is said to have reached a preliminary total of 3m sq ft in the final quarter of 2011, up an impressive 12% on the previous year.

Q4 was the best performing part of the year being the only time that the amount of take-up exceeded the ten year quarterly average of 2.9m sq ft. However based on a year-on-year basis take-up of Central London office space was 4.6m sq ft lower than last year and 1.6m sq ft lower than the ten year average.

In terms of commercial property sectors in the UK, Central London office space is said to have outperformed the rest of the UK with the latest CB Richard Ellis Monthly Index revealing that total returns reached 12.7% for take-up in the area.

The West End is proving to be an area of interest for investors with rents for the area boosting by 7.9% on a year-on-year basis for the final quarter of 2011. The take-up of Central London office space in the West End is said to be 4.3m sq ft which is better than the ten year average.

Executive Director, West End Business Team, CBRE, Phillip Howells said: Creative industries occupiers have played a significant role in supporting West End leasing activity in noncore locations, such as in North of Oxford Street East, throughout 2011 and over much of 2010.

In 2012 we expect demand from the sector to remain strong with active requirements still at a high level.

Availability of office space in Central London increased to 15.6m sq ft last year but supply is set to remain tight in the forthcoming year with new development completions last year totalling 1.7m sq ft and 3m sq ft predicted for 2012, but well below the ten year average of 4.7m sq ft.