According to the chartered surveying firm Farebrother, the current economic climate has created significant office space opportunities in the area, which many Third Sector organisations are already taking advantage of.
“Now is the time in the current cycle for charities to release themselves from the unnecessary burden of high, historic rents and upgrade their HQs to better grade Midtown space and actually reduce running costs,” said Farebrother’s acquisitions partner Mark Anstey.
The company’s latest data suggests that there is now three times as much demand among charity groups for office space to rent in London’s Midtown areas as there was 12 months ago.
A Farebrother statement on the subject said: “The Third Sector’s total share of take-up in 2009 was just nine per cent. In Q2 2010, 26 per cent of all Midtown office take-up was by that sector.”
Companies in the creative sector are also said to be increasingly keen on office space in London’s Midtown, which runs from the River Thames in the south to Euston Road in the north, and from Farringdon Street in the east to Tottenham Court Road in the west.
Meanwhile, the Evans Randall real estate company recently asserted that the time is right for investors to acquire prime office space in central London, given the recent upsurge in demand and rising rental prices.
Editor’s notes: Figures released in 2023 revealed the prime rents achieved in the following London Midtown district:
Prime office rent in Bloomsbury was £82.50 per square foot per annum in 2022.
Clerkenwell prime office rent was £85 per square foot per year, as was the prime office rent in Farringdon.
And taking into account other London Midtown districts such as St Giles and Holborn, the average prime office rent across the whole Midtown submarket was £73.50 per square foot per annum in 2022.
Research conducted in June 2026 found that Farebrother’s Q2 2025 report stated that Central London take-up had reached 906,769 square feet, the highest Q2 since 2013.
The total Central London take-up for 2025 was 12.1 million square feet representing a 15 per cent increase in 2024. 74 per cent of the take up was prime or Grade A office space, reflecting a continued flight to quality by occupiers since the pandemic.
BNP Paribas reported that Midtown had registered a robust 6.5 per cent annual rental growth and the average prime rent across the Midtown district was £85 per square foot.
Knight Frank forecast that Midtown office rents would grow at an average annual rate of 4 per cent over the five years from 2026.