Figures from the commercial property consulting giant showed that close to 1m sqft of offices were newly leased or pre-let during the month in the various markets across the capital.
“August was a busy month for leasing deals and under-offers continue to remain healthy at 2.9m sqft,” said CBRE’s agency head for Central London Digby Flowers.
The number of office space buildings being developed in the major London markets increased in August as well, while overall supply grew by roughly 2 per cent.
There were a total of ten office leasing deals involving 20,000 sqft or more completed during the period and some stand-out agreements including international law firm Trowers & Hamlins, the business technology consultancy Detica and the investment Evercore Partners.
Of the five key property markets in Central London, namely the City, the West End, the Southbank, Docklands and Midtown, only the latter saw a fall in supply in August, CBRE said.
Read the profiles of Providers of Offices on Flexible Leases in the West End
The largest single letting prospect confirmed in the month saw the European Medicines Agency commit to just over a quarter of a million square feet of offices at 25 Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, a building on which construction is yet to get underway.
The West End saw the sharpest increase in deals being done across London, with a 22 per cent rise in leasing activity, while the City’s levels of new take-up were flat.
CBRE’s figures do not take account of the deal agreed in recent days between Debenhams and British Land that will see the department store group renting office space at the yet-to-be-built 10 Brock Street tower at Regent’s Place in NW1.
Editor’s notes: Central London office space take-up in 2022 reached 10.1 million square feet which was higher than the previous year and just below the 10-year average of 10.3 million square feet.
The take-up in the City of London in 2022 was 5.2 million square feet and was 4.1 million square feet in the West End of London.
In 2016, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) vacated its approximately 250,000 square feet of space at 25 Churchill Place in Canary Wharf and moved to Amsterdam, following BREXIT.
It subsequently subleased its space to international flex space provider WeWork.
Debenhams surrended its lease at Regents Place in 2019 during financial difficulties and this made way for Facebook to lease 370,000 square feet at the scheme near Euston Station.