Figures from the commercial property consulting giant showed that close to 1m sqft of offices were newly leased or pre-let during the month across markets in the capital.
“August was a busy month for leasing deals, and under-offers continue to remain healthy at 2.9 million square feet,” said CBRE’s agency head for Central London, Digby Flowers.
The number of office buildings being developed in the major London markets also increased in August, while overall supply grew by roughly 2 per cent.
A total of ten office leasing deals involving 20,000 square feet or more were completed during the period, including stand-out agreements with international law firm Trowers & Hamlins, business technology consultancy Detica, and investment firm 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 was the European Medicines Agency’s commitment to just over a quarter of a million square feet of office space at 25 Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, a building on which construction has yet to begin.
The West End saw the sharpest increase in deals across London, with a 22 per cent rise in leasing activity, while the City’s new take-up was flat.
CBRE’s figures do not account for the deal agreed in recent days between Debenhams and British Land, which 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 it 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 surrendered 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.
In September 2023, British Land announced that it had received a payment of £149 million from Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for the surrender of its lease. The payment was said to be the equivalent of around 7 years of rent.
It is understood that Meta had around 18 years left on the lease when it exercised the break option.
This made way for various leasing deals at Regent’s Place.
Central London take-up was at 2.81 million square feet in Q2 2026, around 4 per cent above the ten-year quarterly average.
City of London take-up fell to 1.1 million square feet in Q2 2026, 19 per cent below the ten-year average.
West End office space take-up grew to 1.25 million square feet in the second quarter of 2026, up 55 per cent from Q1 and 27 per cent year-on-year. This figure was also approximately 29 per cent above the 10-year quarterly average and the market’s strongest quarter in over two years.