Explore Flexible Office Space and Workspace Solutions in the West End
A report from Colliers International suggests that while newly taken office space fell in Q4 2012 compared with the previous three months, demand for Grade A offices in the West End remains strong.
According to Colliers’ resident experts on London office markets, much of that demand is coming from technology and digital media companies.
The most significant new rental deal in the West End in the final quarter of 2012 saw social media company LinkedIn take 45,000 square feet in Covent Garden. Meanwhile, the investment management firm Aspect Capital and the Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco’s UK subsidiary committed to pre-let deals at British Land’s 10 Portman Square development.
Despite the overall dip in office leasing activity in London’s West End, asking rents reportedly rose across the market in the final quarter, reaching an average of £110 per square foot in Mayfair.
“While the last quarter of 2012 has delivered below expectations, there is a healthy pipeline of demand which should encourage renewed letting activity in Q1 2013,” said Guy Grantham, Colliers’ director of research and forecasting.
The international advisory firm’s report suggests that a key reason the West End market saw a dip in new rental activity was protracted negotiations in the context of specific large-scale deals.
However, it was also noted that Facebook and Fremantle Media are both keen to find new offices in the West End of London. So is the advertising agency Havas, which is keen to find a new 200,000 square foott headquarters in the district, according to Colliers.
Editor’s notes: Research in 2023 showed London’s West End district was the 3rd most expensive district in the world in which to rent office space at £147 per square foot, after Hong Kong’s Central and Manhattan’s Midtown districts.
However, London’s West End still holds the world record for the highest office rent ever paid, after a private family office agreed to pay £277.50 per square foot per year for an office at 30 Berkeley Square in 2020.
In January 2024, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced the closure of its Rathbone Square office in Fitzrovia in London’s West End.
In August 2024, the company no longer listed its Covent Garden office in the West End on its website.
In the same month, Freemantle listed 1 Stephen Street, London W1T 1AL, in the West End, on its website as its London office.
Global marketing and media company Havas chose Kings Cross as its London office location when it signed a pre-let agreement for the entire 165,000-square-foot Three Pancras Square in September 2014. The building was completed in Summer 2016.
At the end of Q2 2026, average office rents across the West End district stood at £116.12 per square foot per annum, and headline rents were £180 per square foot.
Take-up in the West End in the first half of 2026 reached 2,105,974 square feet, up 32 per cent and 19 per cent on the 5- and 10-year averages, respectively,
West End prime rents reached £195.00 per square foot in Q3 2026, up 15 per cent year-on-year.