A guide to serviced offices, fitted and managed office space and office space for rent in Milton Keynes, as well as general information that may be useful if you are thinking of renting office space in the town.
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History & Geography
Lying approximately 50 miles northwest of London, Milton Keynes is one of the largest towns in Buckinghamshire in the southeast of England. The modern bustling commuter-belt ‘new town’ of today bears little resemblance to the small village it started life as. While there is evidence that the area was occupied during the Roman occupation of Britain and even before, Milton Keynes, originally known as Middeltone, was properly settled soon after the Norman invasion of England in the 11th century.
The powerful de Cahaines family ruled the area until the 13th century, and it was during this time that it acquired the name Middleton de Keynes, eventually shortened to Milton Keynes. The town lies close to the famous Watling Street, the ancient track from London to Chester, and benefited from this location. However, the main market town in the area remained Newport Pagnell, and for centuries, Milton Keynes’ size and population remained the same.
The Grand Junction Canal, built in the late 18th century, stimulated trade with the area and surrounding communities. When the London and Birmingham Railway was built, the area changed further, and Milton Keynes’ population grew slightly. However, it was not until the late 1960s that Milton Keynes took the form it is today and became one of England’s ‘New Towns’.
New town
In the 1960s, government studies identified Buckinghamshire as an ideal location for a New Town to relieve chronic housing congestion in London. Encompassing the towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford, and Wolverton, this New Town would be the largest and most ambitious to date and was named for a local village – Milton Keynes. The ‘designated area’ of the new town of Milton Keynes was 21,850 acres and located equidistant from London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge. It had a target population of 250,000.
Intensive planning went into the development of Milton Keynes, including a grid of roads and a massive landscaping effort. The town was intended to be composed of independent centres, with the main town centre functioning as the area’s business and shopping district. The grid plan of the town was inspired by the work of legendary urban theorist Melvin M. Webber, who has been described as ‘the father of the city’. Many respected architects, including Norman Foster, Ralph Erskine, and John Winter, worked on the town’s buildings, and a far-reaching public art program was also pursued.
Between 1970 and 1980, the town’s population almost doubled, and in 2021, Milton Keynes had a population of 287,000. In the 1990s, Milton Keynes Borough Council was made a unitary authority, and in 2002 Milton Keynes applied for formal city status but was unsuccessful.
Economy
Milton Keynes is currently one of the most prosperous economies in the region. The town has a gross value per capita index which is 47 per cent higher than the national average. As is often the case in the area, the local economy is dominated by the services industry, making the town vulnerable to recession. One of the few manufacturers based in the area is Marshall, the famous maker of amplifiers, which builds its valve amplifiers there. Milton Keynes is in the London commuter belt, and many residents work in the capital. A 2013 survey found that Milton Keynes was the best of the commuter towns in terms of potential cost savings. The survey estimated that the average commuter could save approximately £7,000 by moving to the town.
Milton Keynes sits in ‘Motorport Valley’, which includes parts of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire – so named because the majority of Formula 1 teams are based there.
Red Bull Racing is headquartered in Milton Keynes, with its HQ a state-of-the-art campus on Bradbourne Drive in Tilbrook, in the MK7 postcode district.
The campus serves as the F1 team’s technical and administrative centre and features advanced manufacturing facilities, R&D test centres, and the MK-7 venue, which houses historic cars, event spaces for up to 450 guests, and a boardroom.
Culture
Among the venues that Milton Keynes is known for are the open-air National Bowl, the Milton Keynes Theatre, the jazz venue, The Stables, and the Pitz Club in the Woughton Centre. Among the museums in the area, the most popular is the Bletchley Park museum of wartime cryptography, which displays the history of the park as a WWII code-breaking centre. Led by Alan Turing, the centre at Bletchley Park is famous for cracking the German Enigma code. Milton Keynes is also known for its many public sculptures, the most famous perhaps being the Concrete Cows by Canadian sculptor Liz Leh. The town also boasts pieces by Phillip Jackson, Nicholas Moreton, Ronald Rae and Elisabeth Frink. The town is also home to the football club MK Dons, which plays at Stadium MK. The team currently play in the third tier of English football, EFL League One.
Transportation
Milton Keynes is served by five separate railway stations. Milton Keynes Central is the largest and the only one served by intercity services. The Wolverton and Bletchley stations are on the West Coast Main Line, and Bow Brickhill and Fenny Stratford are on the Marston Vale Line. The main bus operator in the area is MK Metro, which operates several routes around the town’s central area. A selection of long-distance coaches also stop at Milton Keynes Coachway, where there is a park-and-ride car park. The nearest airport is London Luton Airport, which is easily accessible from Milton Keynes Central Station.
Office space to rent in Milton Keynes
Following the Great Recession, the Milton Keynes office market had approximately 7 million square feet in 2013. Among the high-profile companies that had offices in the town were Baker Tilly, Deloitte, DHL, Grant Thornton, HBOS, RBS and Santander.
DHL had taken 10,995 square feet at 249 Midsummer Boulevard, and demand for Grade A office space had been rising in the area, which Milton Keynes office agents anticipated would lead to higher rents, as the city suffered from a dearth of high-quality office space. The headline rent in 2013 was £20 per square foot per year.
In 2022, Allianz acquired 22,000 square feet of space in Milton Keynes, which was one of the largest lettings of the year. The financial services company opted for refurbished space that had a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’.
This transaction was reflective of the whole market – in 2022, Grade A office supply was close to historic lows with just 51,079 square feet available – less than 7 per cent of the overall stock.
The ‘flight to quality’ among occupiers seeking space with ESG credentials has pushed prime office rents to £28 per square foot.
And the lack of Grade A space has pushed good-quality second-hand space to £27.50 per square foot.
The development pipeline was positive at the time, though, and included the mixed-use scheme, MK Gateway, that would include an incubator building that would deliver affordable workspace.
It was expected that new, high-quality Grade A office space would reach £30 per square foot in the next 24 months.
In Q1 2026, it was reported that the Milton Keynes office market continued to benefit from business relocations and from plans for a new Universal Studios theme park and resort, following planning permission being granted in April 2025.
Office take-up via lettings totalled 205,200 square feet in 2025, while requirements for space rose to 385,200 square feet.
As with other office markets across the UK, there was continued flight to quality among occupiers, with activity focused on Grade A city centre space.
This pushed prime office rents in Milton Keynes by 11 per cent to £39 per square foot.
Developers were already under various pressures as they entered 2026, and it was expected that the Middle Eastern conflict would further stifle new development starts.
No new offices were under construction in 2026, which, combined with demand for best-in-class space, was expected to create further upward pressure on rents. Headline rents were predicted to reach £45 per square foot per annum by 2030.
It was reported, however, that the refurbishment of Santander’s former office would deliver approximately 210,000 square feet of Grade A space to the market.
There are 11 flexible office space providers in Milton Keynes that offer alternative alternatives to renting office space on a traditional lease. These alternatives include private serviced offices on short-term contracts with all-inclusive fixed-cost pricing, managed and fitted offices and corporate coworking membership plans.
These offer their solutions from 14 buildings across Milton Keynes in locations including Avebury Boulevard, Fairbourne Drive, Foxhunter Drive, Midsummer Boulevard, Presley Way, Rockingham Drive, Silbury Boulevard, South View, Unity Place, and Witan Gate West.
Profiles of all of these operators can be seen here.
We carry out a free office space search, and our advisory and acquisition services are also free, always. Our Milton Keynes office space brokers and agents are globally regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), ensuring the highest standards of commercial property advice and service at all times. We look forward to helping you find the best office space for rent for your business.
The Office Providers are Regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)