A guide to serviced offices and office space to rent in Cardiff, as well as general information that may be useful if you are thinking of renting office space in Cardiff.
For further offices information or to search office space for rent in Cardiff just click. Or contact us for any other query.
Cardiff and South Glamorgan
Cardiff is the largest and most populous city in Wales and one of the foremost areas of economic activity in the UK. With origins stretching back beyond the Middle Age Norman and the Roman occupation of Britain, Cardiff has been the county town of Glamorgan since the time of Henry VIII in the 16th century.
In fact, it was the famous old king who oversaw the Act of Union between England and Wales in the 1530s, and the two countries have been largely conjoined and operating under the same administrative system ever since.
Cardiff is now at the forefront of almost all that goes on in Wales, as far as the southern regions are concerned at least, but this has only really been the case for a few hundred years. Indeed, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century that Cardiff officially became a city, and it wasn’t named the capital of Wales until the 1950s.
Just over one million people now live in the areas surrounding Cardiff, with around a third of those living close to the primary urban centre.
To the west of the city lies the generally rural Vale of Glamorgan, and to the south is the Severn Estuary. To the east is another major Welsh city, Newport, and to the north are the coal-rich valleys that have helped Cardiff establish itself as a major economic centre. The rivers Taff and Ely both run into the city and eventually into Cardiff Bay, a freshwater lake, around which some of the most successful regeneration efforts in modern Britain are now to be found.
Economy
Historically, much of Cardiff’s and indeed much of South Wales’ economic strength has been based on the capacity to deliver coal through Tiger Bay to different parts of the world, but as times have changed, so has the city.
The docks still handle millions of tonnes of cargo each year, but the city is now better known as the Welsh administrative centre and as one of the largest providers of financial and other business-related services in Europe.
In addition to these sources of employment, Cardiff has also established itself as a hugely popular tourist destination and has gained a media industry reputation second only to that of the UK capital.
Tourism
From bars and nightclubs to shops and sporting events, there is a huge amount to see and enjoy in Cardiff, and the city is consistently rated as being among the best places to visit in Britain.
Among the main attractions is the Cardiff International Arena, which regularly hosts concerts by worldwide music stars, including the city’s own Shirley Bassey, who opened the centre in 1993.
Given that there are now more than ten million visitors to the Welsh capital each year, it is perhaps unsurprising that the city’s services sector keeps as many as 9,000 hotel beds available at any one time.
Such has been the commitment to redevelopment in Cardiff over the last few decades that the city is now replete with modern landmarks of all kinds, from the Millennium Stadium to the National Assembly for Wales. There are also dozens of listed buildings dating from the city’s industrial past, like the famous Coal Exchange, and there are several castles that are well worth seeing should you get the chance.
Office space to rent in Cardiff
A number of prominent insurance companies, including Admiral, Legal & General and Zurich, operate nationally from office space in Cardiff, as do energy firms like British Gas and Swalec Energy.
The UK’s first insurance price comparison site, Admiral’s Confused.com, was established in Cardiff in 1995.
Cardiff has also been home to the offices of several fintech companies, including Delio, Sonovate and Wealthify.
Monzo decided to base itself in Cardiff in 2017, followed shortly thereafter by a fellow high-street-bank disruptor, Starling Bank.
In terms of the creative and cultural industries (CCI), BBC Wales, ITV Wales, S4C, and over 600 independent TV production firms based in Cardiff make it one of the UK’s largest media production centres outside of its capital.
Casualty and Doctor Who are filmed in Cardiff, for instance, and Hollywood films such as Show Dogs, which starred Will Arnett, RuPaul, Natasha Lyonne and Stanley Tucci, were filmed outside production facilities in the Welsh capital.
BT signed for 65,000 square feet at Capital Quarter in Q1 of 2022, and American streaming company, Roku, signed for 25,845 square feet at Fusion Point One in Q2 of the same year.
In Q3 2022, the headline deal was the 16,953-square-foot acquisition by the University of Wales Trinity St David’s at Haywood House North.
And, following in the footsteps of BT, international office space providers, IWG Plc, signed for 19,678 square feet of space at 1 Capital Quarter in Q4 of 2022.
In total, 458,799 square feet of office space was taken up over 112 lettings.
In 2024, prime office rent in Cardiff remained at £25 per square foot per annum, and Grade A rent rates remained at £23 per square foot.
In December 2024, it was announced that Lloyd Banking Group had agreed to a 110,000-square-foot pre-let with developer JR Smart for a new base in Cardiff, marking Wales’ largest office deal for five years.
The UK’s largest domestic bank would create a hub for just over 3,000 staff after signing a 10-year lease for the entire John Street office scheme, which overlooks Callaghan Square.
The development was started in late 2019 and was initially scheduled for completion in 2021. However, work was derailed by the pandemic for several years.
The scheme’s new completion date was scheduled for completion in September 2025.
In Q3 2025, Cardiff’s office take-up by way of lettings was recorded as 53,400 square feet, which was a 34 per cent increase on the previous quarter; however, it remained 27 per cent below the 10-year average.
The largest two deals of the quarter were at One Central Square, where law firms Browne Jacobson and Lewis Silkin signed leases to rent 9,135 square feet and 7,439 square feet, respectively.
Overall vacancy rates were at a historic high of 9.6 per cent, driven by secondary space returning to the market and outweighing take-up.
However, Grade A vacancy rates were among the lowest of the UK’s Big Nine cities at just 0.4 per cent.
Due to demand for the highest-quality office space and the low vacancy rate, prime office rents in Cardiff increased 7.1 per cent to £30 per square foot per annum in the third quarter of 2025.
There are 22 flex space providers, workspace operators, and landlords in Cardiff offering a wide range of flexible office space and workspace solutions, including private serviced offices, fully managed offices, fitted offices, and coworking memberships for companies and individuals. Providers include international operators such as Regus and Cardiff-focused operators such as Cobalt Space and Tramshed Tech. Profiles of all Cardiff flexible space providers can be found here.
Transport links
The principal route in and out of the Welsh capital is via the M4 motorway, which heads to Bridgend and Swansea to the west and as far as London via Bristol and Swindon to the east. Other ways to get to Cardiff include by railway, with the city’s central station being the largest in the province and accepting passengers daily from just about everywhere in the UK.
In the air, meanwhile, visitors arrive in Wales via its only international airport, located ten miles or so outside Cardiff. For the locals or people working in Cardiff, there are numerous public transport links across the city, including buses and a commuter rail system.
Sport
In Wales and Cardiff in particular, rugby union is a national obsession, and the Welsh team plays regularly at the Millennium Stadium, the scene of many triumphs in the Six Nations Championships. The national football team also plays its home games at the stadium, while Cardiff City accommodates more than 20,000 devoted fans every time it takes the field at its ground in Leckwith, opened in 2009. The football team also rent their impressive stadium to the Cardiff Blues, one of Europe’s best rugby union teams.
Aside from rugby and football, Cardiff is a centre of Welsh boxing, athletics, cricket and motor racing, and the city also played a part in London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
Caerdydd Culture
Cardiff is among the most culturally rich and diverse places in the UK, and it maintains a strong link to its heritage through events like the National Eisteddfod, a summer celebration of Welsh culture, art and identity, which takes place annually and often at various venues across the capital.
The city is famed for its all-male choirs, singers such as Charlotte Church and Shirley Bassey, and bands such as the Manic Street Preachers. Welsh orchestras and operas are recognised as being among the best to be found in the British Isles, and there are a number of top-class new venues in the city, like the strikingly impressive Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.
Our office space search, advisory and acquisition services are FREE, always. Our Cardiff office space brokers and agents are globally regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), ensuring the highest standards of commercial property advice and service at all times.
The Office Providers is Regulated by the RICS