See the profiles of companies that provide alternatives to leased offices – the Providers of Flexi Space in the West End
Colliers International has released a report stating that the West End of the capital saw its highest quarterly take-up rate in more than three years.
The research also found that average headline rents in the West End had climbed by five per cent in the first quarter of this year.
On average, the Central London figure climbed to £46.78 per square foot, representing an annual rise of 7.1 per cent.
Guy Grantham, Director of Research and Forecasting at Colliers International, said: “The squeeze on Grade A supply is becoming more pronounced across Central London. However, total Grade A transactions for built space fell by 25 per cent quarter on quarter, underlining the reduction in ready-to-occupy top-quality office product.
“Low vacancy in the West End is set to have a significant impact upon latent demand from occupiers who might relocate if opportunities existed. In the City market, demand is being dictated more by tenant inertia and global influences, but large lettings could easily change the whole tone of a single quarter’s statistics.”
Availability of office space across Central London fell by four per cent in the first quarter of 2011, the Colliers report also found.
Meanwhile, the Lloyds TSB Million Pound Property Report has found that million-pound property sales are increasing at their fastest rate since 2006.
The UK now has 185,000 real estate millionaires, the report stated. And there were 7,185 million-pound property sales transactions in Britain last year, the research found, some 54 per cent higher than in 2009.
Editor’s notes: In 2022, the amount of office space taken up by lettings deals in the West End of London totalled 4.1 million square feet, which was 11 per cent higher than the 10-year average.
At the end of 2022, there was 3.1 million square feet of active demand in the West End.
Tenant-controlled supply, i.e. office space that can be sublet or assigned from a tenant, stood at 6.4 million square feet at the end of 2022, which represented a 3 per cent increase quarter on quarter.
This increase in supply equated to an overall vacancy rate of 6.3 per cent in the West End.
In the last quarter of 2022, there was an increase in newly built space brought to the market in Q4, rising 7 per cent over the quarter. This resulted in the new build vacancy rate rising to 1.0 per cent, which was above the 10-year quarterly average of 0.8 per cent.
At the end of 2022, it was expected that supply would increase in the short term as there were approximately 3 million square feet of developments under construction and due to complete in 2023.
Research published by Savills in May 2026 found that Q1 take-up in the West End reached 833,712 square feet despite macroeconomic turbulence. This figure was down just 1 per cent on Q1 in 2025 and 6 per cent on the 10-year average.
Occupiers also displayed a clear preference for fitted space, with over two-thirds of sub-10,000-square-foot transactions and over 80 per cent of those under 5,000 square feet being fitted.
Average prime rents were down marginally year-on-year as a result of lower levels of activity in the core markets of Mayfair and St James’s, and stood at the end of the quarter at £165.00 per square foot.
The overall vacancy rate fell to 7.8 per cent in the first quarter. Core markets continued to experience persistently low supply levels. For example, in Mayfair, the vacancy rate contracted to 3.4 per cent, making it the most undersupplied of the West End submarkets, with just 12 months of supply based on average take-up levels.
The constrained future pipeline was unlikely to resolve this, with over half (54 per cent) of the space due for delivery in Mayfair by the end of 2027 already pre-let.
Across the West End, just three schemes totalling 303,000 square foot reached practical completion in Q1 – less than half the amount that was delivered during the same period in 2025. In fact, three-quarters of the 1.6 million square feet expected to complete in Q1 (as of the end of last year) saw its completion date moved forward, indicating that delays to schemes continued to linger and that the record quantity of space that is currently forecast in 2026 will likely spill over into 2027.