The figures represent a notable increase on the previous three-month period when 1.43 million sqft of space was let.
Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report on office leasing activity in the West End, Docklands and City districts of London illustrates that a relative lack of quality space prompted a rise in demand during the quarter.
However, C&W’s experts said that overall demand and the pace of office letting growth in central London will decline to some extent in 2012 in light of difficult economic conditions in the UK and Europe.
Occupiers in the ‘Square Mile’ are cautious about their prospects for next year, but demand in the key financial district is likely to pick up again in 2013, said James Young, head of the advisory’s City of London office.
C&W’s report made clear that rising activity in the West End is being fueled in large part by technology, media, and telecoms companies.
Guy Taylor, head of C&W’s agency in the West End, said: “A lack of good quality space is supporting rental growth in key sub-markets, in particular in Mayfair and St James’s, Soho and Covent Garden and Victoria, where rents have seen double-digit growth over the last 12 months.”
Among the most high-profile and large-scale office leasing deals agreed in central London in the second quarter were those that saw the retail group Debenhams sign up for 154,000 sq ft of space in the West End and the Camden Primary Care Trust take 150,000 sq ft at King’s Cross.
Supply of offices in the West End stood 25 per cent lower at the end of the third quarter than at the beginning of the year, with 2.3 million sq ft taken up in 2011 to date. Overall activity grew in Q3 but was down compared with figures for the same period of last year, the latest data demonstrated.
Editor’s notes: The total amount of office space taken up through lettings in 2022 was 10.1 million square feet which was 18 per cent higher than the previous year’s figure of 8.5m square feet, although marginally lower than the long-term annual average of 10.3 million square feet.
Take-up in East London, which includes the Canary Wharf and Docklands districts, totalled 614,000 sq ft. This was 73 per cent greater than the 353,000 square feet transacted in 2021 but 34 per cent lower than the 10-year annual average of 926,000 square feet.
In December 2020, Debenhams announced that it was entering into liquidation.
In the West End of London, overall supply increased 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter to stand at 6.4 million square feet at the end of Q4 2022.
The amount of newly built space brought to the market in Q4 increased, reflecting a rise of 7 percent during Q4 2022.