The figures represent a notable increase on the previous three-month period when 1.43 million square feet 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 overall demand and the pace of office letting growth in central London will decline to some extent in 2012, given 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 largely 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, large-scale office leasing deals agreed in central London in the second quarter were those in which the retail group Debenhams signed up for 154,000 square feet of space in the West End and the Camden Primary Care Trust took 150,000 square feet at King’s Cross.
Office supply in the West End was 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 from the same period last year, the latest data showed.
Editor’s notes: The total 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 8.5 million 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 square feet. 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 rose 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter to 6.4 million square feet at the end of Q4 2022.
Newly built space brought to market in Q4 increased by 7 per cent.
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.
Central London active demand reached 13.86 million square feet at the end of Q2, up 8 per cent on the previous quarter and 72 per cent above the long-term average.
Due to very low vacancy rates for the best office space in Central London (City Grade A tower vacancy rates were at just 1.9 per cent, for instance), many occupiers were opting to stay put until more options became available; reflecting this, circa 1 million square feet was known to be under offer for lease regears at the end of H1 2026.