Pre-lets drive London leasing activity above 10-year average in July
The largest deal of the month was at One Braham, E1 where BT pre-let 328,100 sq ft. This deal helped pre-let take-up reach 615,800 sq ft, 190% above the 10-year average of 212,300 sq ft.
The creative industries sector and business services sector each represented around a third of the monthly take-up, accounting for 34% and 33% respectively during July. Flexible office operators took 391,200 sq ft across four deals. The second largest deal of the month saw WeWork take 277,900 sq ft at 30 Churchill Place in the Docklands.
Central London saw a rise of 2% in availability in July 2019 from the previous month at 13.3m sq ft. 70% of total availability was second-hand space at 9.3m sq ft, above the 10-year average of 8.8m sq ft. The largest available unit was in EC2 at 22 Bishopsgate at 490,100 sq ft.
There was 3.8m sq ft of office space under offer at the end of July, remaining above the Central London 10-year average of 3.1m sq ft. At 2.3m sq ft, a high proportion (61%) of the space under offer was second-hand, 27% above the 10-year average of 1.8m sq ft. There were four under offers greater than 100,000 sq ft in size, of which the largest was at 22 Bishopsgate for 420,400 sq ft.
David Perowne, Head of City Office Leasing at CBRE, explains:
“Demand for London office space proved to be extremely strong in July. Led by BT’s acquisition of One Braham, pre-let take-up reached unprecedented levels as, undeterred by political uncertainty, occupiers sought to secure premium space across London.”
