BNP Paribas Real Estate carried out the study to better understand how companies in the technology, media, and telecoms (TMT) sector view their prospects and the London office space market. The headline findings were that 54 per cent of TMT businesses with offices in London plan to boost staff levels over the next three years, with the average anticipated increase as high as one-third.
Interest in the TMT sector’s views has grown in recent years, as more traditional sources of office space demand have been notably squeezed since the 2008 financial crisis. BNP Paribas Real Estate’s report notes that the range of companies categorised as TMT operators is broad, but it also shows real vibrancy in the industry and likely demand for quality office space across locations.
Indeed, the report suggests that the TMT sector in London will need to add the equivalent of two Shard office buildings worth of office space to the stock it uses before the end of 2014. London ranked second behind New York on the list of the world’s leading centres for media and technology industries. No particular area of London emerged as the leading location for TMT companies keen to expand their offices. Still, demand for high-quality, modern offices across the capital was apparent.
“When participants were asked to use three words to describe what their ideal property would look and feel like, ‘modern’ was the undisputed winner,” the BNP Paribas report said of its research findings.
The report also found that while London and New York were viewed favourably as destinations of choice for TMT companies, San Francisco and Silicon Valley in California fared much worse in the study, despite being where the likes of Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter drove significant growth and innovation in the sector.
Editor’s notes: In 2023, the TMT sector accounted for 15 per cent of London’s total office space use.
Central London office take-up reached approximately 2.4 million square feet in Q1 2026 and 2.81 million square feet in Q2 2026, around 4 per cent above the ten-year quarterly average.
AI and technology firms accounted for more than a quarter of total central London office lettings take-up in Q1 2026, and Anthropic and OpenAI acquired almost 250,000 square feet of office space in the quarter alone.
Savills reported that the Tech & Media sector accounted for the largest share of H1 office leasing activity in Central London, capturing 31 per cent of take-up. This was 64 per cent above the sector’s long-term H1 average and marked its strongest first half since 2017. Overall, AI-related occupiers accounted for almost half of all Tech & Media take-up.
In September 2026, reports said Microsoft was in talks to take around 200,000 square feet of office space at Belgrove House in King’s Cross.
OpenAI, the platform that Microsoft partners with, had signed for 88,500 square feet of office space at the Regent Quarter in King’s Cross earlier in 2026.