Currently, the average office space rate in Cardiff is approximately £21 per square foot and is set to remain steady, according to research from BNP Paribas Real Estate.
WalesOnline quoted Anthony Phillips, senior director of investment at BNP Paribas Real Estate, as saying: “There are some very desperate landlords who just cannot let space for love or money and are dropping rents as fast as you like.”
Phillips also said that Cardiff city centre has some older office buildings that may be hard to refurbish.
“We think the rents are going to slide even lower and it’s very difficult to refurbish them because they’re old structures”, he said.
Recently, a few new buildings have been built in Cardiff which offer Grade A office space, Phillips added. He recounted that the last such building was constructed 15 years ago, at Number One Kingsway.
“Even if somebody were to say we’re going to build a new building today it would take 12 months to get planning consent and up to two years to build it”.
The online news portal also quoted Claire Higgins, who is head of research at BNP Paribas, as saying: “It’s a trend that’s happening around the regions, but for Cardiff, the shortage of new-build stock is more noticeable than some other centres.”
Recently, Experian released a report warning that the Welsh economy may be slower to recover than its English counterpart. In particular, public spending cuts could make recovery much slower, the report found.
Editor’s notes: In 2022, rent for prime office space in Cardiff was £25 per square foot per year, and there was 1.6 million square feet available to rent; however, only about one-quarter of that was Grade A or prime office space.
A large pre-let deal was done with PwC, under which the accountancy firm agreed to rent 60,000 square feet at One Central Quay on completion. It was expected that this activity would trigger further developments of new office space.
Rents were rumoured to be in the £30s per square foot, which would be a rental record for the city and would indicate room for future growth.
As of June 2023, many occupiers were considering their longer-term office space requirements in light of, in some cases, the increased adoption of hybrid working practices.
This led to an increase in the letting of short-term, fully fitted serviced offices and coworking desk spaces. There are over 20 serviced office providers in Cardiff, and their profiles can be seen here.
Research conducted in 2026 found that in Q3 2025, the overall vacancy rate in the Cardiff office market was at a historic high of 9.6 per cent, driven by secondary space returning to the market and by take-up being outweighed.
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 a low vacancy rate, prime office rents in Cardiff increased by 7.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter to £30 per square foot per annum in the third quarter of 2025.
In April 2026, Savills reported that take-up at the end of Q1 2026 totalled 46,392 square feet. It was also reported that the take-up of Grade A and Prime office space in Q1 2026 was 89 per cent higher than in Q1 2025.
It was also reported that the overall vacancy rate increased marginally to 14.5 per cent and that secondary stock accounted for 88 per cent of the total.
The prime and Grade A vacancy rates remained unchanged from Q4 2025 at 1.8 per cent. Prime office rent also stood at £30 per square foot.