Over the next three years, London’s financial services sector will add up to 11,000 more employees and will need space to house them, research from BNP Paribas’ commercial real estate unit has discovered.
To put this in perspective, the space needed is the equivalent of four of The Shard skyscrapers.
Banks are to require at least 1.6 million square feet of office space for their new employees, the research found, mostly in the City and Mayfair areas.
Read our guide to Renting an Office in Mayfair
Of the companies surveyed in the research, a full 75 per cent said they were planning to expand in the next three years, and 55 per cent said they would be adding a significant number of new employees.
Fred Hargreaves, head of BNP Paribas Real Estate’s City agency, was quoted in the FT as saying: “There will be a lot of smaller firms taking larger offices, a lot like how the recovery started after the dotcom bust in 2003 and 2004.
“Taxation is a big concern, however.”
The years 2012 and 2013 would see some major moves Hargreaves added, as leases signed in the 1980s and 90s ran out.
However, over three-quarters of those surveyed had fears about government regulation of the financial sector. “Poorly thought out regulation of banks” was a major concern, as was “increasing taxes on banks and bankers”.
Due to be completed in 2012, The Shard will be the tallest building in the EU and the 45th tallest building in the world. It will have 586,509 square feet of office space and 62,129 square feet of residential apartments.
It will replace Southwark Towers, designed in 1976.
Editor’s notes: As of June 2023, following the pandemic, the way offices were used had changed for many occupiers. Whilst there were still large leasing deals completed across Central London in 2022 – particularly by big players in the Banking & Financial Services, Legal Services, Professional Services, and the Technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sectors, many companies of varying sizes were experimenting with hybrid working models.
Those that were experimenting were increasingly utilising products from the flexible workspace industry, such as fully fitted serviced private offices with all-inclusive rents and coworking desk space membership packages.
As of June 2023, there were over 200 serviced office providers in London, and their profiles can be seen at the link.
According to research by Savills, a total of 9.43 million square feet of office space was leased in Central London in 2025.
This figure was up 5 per cent on the five-year average but down 9 per cent on the ten-year average; however, there was a total of 12.4 million square feet of requirements at the end of Q4, 35 per cent above the 10-year average.
In 2025, the Insurance & Financial Services sector accounted for 31 per cent of space acquired, with strong demand from Hedge Funds, Asset Management and Insurance firms significantly boosting sector activity.
In the newly named Tech & Media sector, transaction volume reached its highest level since 2019, driven by strong demand in the Software/App sub-sector. Overall, the Tech & Media sector accounted for 16 per cent of Central London space acquired during 2025.
The Professional Services sector followed with the third largest share of take-up, with demand from the sector having softened over the year and accounting for 11 per cent of leasing activity.
While the Public Services sector accounted for 7 per cent of take-up, there was a notable uptick in activity from the sector, with overall take-up boosted by the London School of Economics’ acquisition of the 162,562 square foot Centrium, 61 Aldwych, WC2.