A guide to flexible serviced offices, fitted and managed offices and office space to rent in London, as well as general information that may be useful if you are considering renting offices or workspace in the city.
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History & Geography
Perhaps the best-known and most important city on earth, London is more than a metropolis; it is a social, cultural, and economic beacon. The United Kingdom’s capital is located in the south-east of the country, on the River Thames, the country’s largest river. Greater London covers over 600 square miles and comprises 32 boroughs, surrounded by rolling hills and copses. It has an oceanic climate, with chilly winters and generally hot summers. The city started as Londinium, a Roman settlement, almost two millennia ago. Founded in 47 CE, the settlement lasted less than 20 years before being burnt to the ground during a revolt by Queen Boudicca of the Iceni Tribe. However, the town was rebuilt and by 200 AD had a population of over 60,000, most of whom made their living from fishing or trading. After the Romans left, London came under constant attack by the Vikings. This lasted until 886 AD, when Alfred the Great defeated a Viking army. With the unification of England in the 10th century, London became the most important city in the country, followed by Winchester. After the Normans successfully invaded the country, William, Duke of Normandy, built the famous Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. By 1300, the city had a population of approximately 100,000. Gradually, London increased in importance until it was the largest and busiest port in northern Europe. However, in 1666, the Great Fire of London decimated much of the city, with rebuilding taking the next decade. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, London was the largest and wealthiest city in the world. As its infrastructure expanded, the famous London Underground was built, and the city continued to prosper. During WWII, London was heavily bombed by the German Luftwaffe, inflicting high casualties and widespread damage. During the 1960s, the city became a centre of youth culture, known as ‘Swinging London’. Later in the 1980s, the city acquired its continuing reputation as a financial hub. In 2012, the city successfully hosted the Summer Olympics, cementing its reputation as arguably the greatest city in the world.
Economy
With the fourth-largest city economy in the world behind Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles, London is one of the most economically dynamic cities in Europe. The UK’s capital has a large and diversified economy, but is best known as an important financial services centre and a media and professional services hub. The city’s importance to the UK’s economy cannot be underestimated. It accounts for approximately 22-25 per cent of the country’s GDP and has a population of almost 9 million. Financial services are the city’s largest industry, with most companies being located in The City, also known as The Square Mile, an area of central London. London became a largely service-based economy after WWII and has several advantages that make it ideally suited to this kind of industry. Its location in a central time zone means it can connect the US and Asian markets.
Additionally, English law is the most commonly used form of contract law between businesses and the city, and it also benefits from low taxes on foreign companies. More than 85 per cent of London’s population works in the service industries, with the rest working predominantly in manufacturing and construction. After services, the media is the second largest industry in London. The BBC is a major employer, and most of the UK’s national newspapers are based in London.
Tourism & Culture
London is one of the premier tourist destinations in the world. The industry employs over 700,000 Londoners who cater to approximately 21 million international visitors annually. London has a range of popular attractions, including the Tower of London, the British Museum, Tate Modern, the National Gallery, the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, the National Maritime Museum, and the Natural History Museum. Many visitors also like to walk along the banks of the Thames and see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The city is also known for its famous restaurants, clubs and pubs. Areas like Soho, Hoxton, Camden and Mayfair are known for being lively and exciting centres of entertainment and relaxation. Some of the most widely known symbols of London are its black cabs, red phone boxes and red double-decker buses. Residents of the city are known as Cockneys and have a distinctive accent and patois all their own. London also hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, a sporting spectacle that attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and put the city in the spotlight.
Transportation
London has one of the most extensive and efficient transportation systems in the world. There are several airports around the city, the largest being Luton, Heathrow, Stansted, and Gatwick. Of these, Heathrow is the largest and serves the most international transport. It is the third busiest airport in the world and handles more international travel than any other airport on earth. The city of London itself is served by a large network of underground trains – the famous ‘tube’, as well as the overground rail system with connections all over the country, and to Paris via the Eurostar train. Londoners also use the many trams, buses, taxis and Ubers that crisscross the city. Cycling has also become a popular form of transport, and cycle hire stations can be found all across the city. Bicycles from these stations can be hired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and returned to any station. Hirers need to supply their own helmets and any other safety wearables.
Office Space in Central London
London Office Space to Rent
London is home to some of the most expensive office space in the world, and its office market is generally seen as immune to the vagaries of the local economy. The city boasts several areas brimming with prime Grade A office space. Central London office space is highly sought after by investors at home and abroad. Central London’s office space markets are typically broken down into the submarkets of the City of London, Canary Wharf, and the West End, each with several sub-markets.
In February 2025, Savills reported that take-up through office lettings across Central London during the final quarter of 2024 reached 3.2 million square feet. This was up 16 per cent on the previous quarter. This brought 2024 Central London take-up to 10.1 million square feet, which was down only 5 per cent from the long-term average.
City of London take-up was up 2 per cent on the long-term average at 6.54 million square feet. However, leasing activity in the West End continued to trail 16 per cent behind the long-term average, having reached 3.56 million square feet in 2024.
In November 2025, global real estate advisor CBRE reported that its latest research indicated that the London flexible office space market would reach 50 million square feet by 2030.
It stated that the flex space market represented 12 per cent of the total London office market at the time of its research, and it estimated this would rise to 20 per cent by 2030, largely driven by evolving occupier demand for flexible solutions and increased landlord participation in the sector.
It also predicted that space created, operated and managed by landlords, also known as ‘Brandlord’ space, would reach 3 million square feet by 2030, representing a 200 per cent increase.
In February 2026, it was reported that, in 2025, London office space take-up hit 12.1 million square feet across 1,400 deals, the capital’s strongest year since 2019.
Of this take-up, 70 per cent of new leases by major corporates in 2025 were expansionary as more firms switched to four-day-in-the-office models.
14 of the deals closed in 2025 were over 100,000 square feet, up from nine in 2024 and in the 50,000 square feet and above category, 50 deals were completed, up from 32 in 2024.
A limited supply of new prime space, for instance, the City core, Marylebone and Soho, had less than 15 months of vacant space, which had pushed rents to record levels.
Prime rents in the West End Core increased 15.6 per cent in 2025 to a record £185 per square foot, and prime rents in the City Core increased 7.9 per cent to £102.50 per square foot.
It was also reported that 50 million square feet of London office leases were set to expire by 2030, fuelling a supply crunch as new space vacancy rates sat below 1 per cent in the City and West End core markets.
Whilst 5.9 million square feet of new space would be added in 2026, 43 per cent had already been pre-let.
In March 2026, research published by CBRE estimated that artificial intelligence (AI) companies accounted for more than 1m square feet of office space take-up across London between 2020 and 2025.
Falling with the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sector, the pace at which the AI companies were growing was also noted, with many taking flex space with 15 to 20 desks and requiring space for between 50 and 100 desks within a year.
Many have been opting for flexible space, such as co-working and serviced offices, initially because these are immediately available, plug-and-play options that allow for expansion, and are looking to move into traditional leased offices of 20,000 to 30,000 square feet in 18 to 24 months.
It was also reported that some companies with only four employees were seeking to rent 20,000 square feet because of their confidence in their growth trajectory following the securing of venture capital backing.
In February, Great Portland Estates pre-let 52,293 square feet of office space to AI software firm Quantexa at The Delft near London Bridge, and a few weeks later, it was reported that Derwent London had pre-let all 136,300 square feet of offices at its Network scheme in Fitzrovia to data and AI company Databricks.
Also in March, Landsec reported that its flex space brand MYO’s property in Kings Cross had attracted more than 10 AI and technology occupiers since opening in 2025.
It has also been reported that San Francisco-headquartered AI giant OpenAI had announced its future intention to make London its largest research hub outside the US, with further details to follow.
Within the flexible office space sector, there has been a significant growth in demand for managed office space in London, also referred to as fitted or furnished offices and Cat B office space.
Managed offices sit between traditionally leased offices and serviced offices, blending the benefits of both. They offer greater autonomy and longer terms than serviced offices, yet greater agility than leased space. They remove many elements of property and facilities management from the occupier, reduce capital expenditure and dilapidations liabilities, and bring accounting efficiencies through all-inclusive fixed-cost rental pricing.
Branded managed offices in London often incorporate a custom fit-out and bespoke service and amenities package.
In 2026, joint research by Savills and Valve revealed that there were 83,000 managed office leads in London in 2025, which was a 23 per cent increase on 2024’s figure and a 65 per cent increase on 2023’s total.
See our guide to opening an office in London Kings Cross here
See our guide to opening an office in London Hammersmith here
Read our guide to opening an office in London Victoria here
Flexible Workspace in Iconic Buildings in Central London
The City of London Office Space to Rent
The area of London known as The City has the most volume of office space in the capital at eighty million square feet. The full-year take-up for 2017 was 6.2 million square feet, and this total was inflated by the flexible offices and workspace sector, which made up 21 per cent of the take-up. Aside from flexible offices, the sector breakdown was diverse, with major transactions in insurance, financial services and media sectors.
City prime rents were stable at £70 per square foot in 2017, and these have now remained unchanged for a period of two years.
In Q1 2024, it was announced that HQ moves by big banks and financial services companies and the growing demand to set up shop in the Square Mile had taken financial services office leasing deals in London to their highest level in more than a decade.
There were several large development plans approved in the latter half of 2024, including those for the 74-storey 1 Undershaft at St Mary Axe and those for Obayashi and Sellar’s 36-storey City office tower at 60 Gracechurch Street.
The 36-storey tower would provide 400,000 square feet of office space and replace the 1990s-built Allianz House.
In 2025, the City of London Corporation announced its ‘City Plan 2040’, which outlined its strategy to deliver a minimum of 1.2 million square metres (circa 12.9 million square feet) of additional office space to the City by 2040, and to transform the Square Mile into a seven-day-a-week cultural and leisure destination.
See our guide to search for and opening an office in the City of London here
See our guide to opening an office in Holborn City of London here
See our guide to searching for and opening an office in Farringdon here
See our guide to opening an office in Shoreditch here
Renting an Office in London
Canary Wharf and East London Office Space to Rent
Canary Wharf is London’s other financial services centre and is located in Tower Hamlets in the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs. Currently, Canary Wharf has 14 million square feet of Grade A office space, approximately half of which is owned by property developer the Canary Wharf Group. Approximately 90,000 people work in Canary Wharf, and it has been home to the European headquarters of some of the largest banks and financial services companies in the world, including Credit Suisse, HSBC, KPMG and Barclays.
2017 total take-up reached 710,000 square feet, with the pre-let of 270,000 square feet, Building M7, Stratford City, E20, by HMRC, representing a significant chunk of that. The overall vacancy rate increased to 8.9 per cent in 2017, prime rents for conventional office space remain at £47.50 per square foot, and pre-let products are being marketed at £52.50- £57.50 per square foot.
In April 2024, it was announced that the University of Sunderland had taken nearly 100,000 sq ft of office space at Harbour Exchange in Canary Wharf, in one of the largest education lettings in the Docklands ever.
The university was a previous tenant at Canary Wharf, having leased circa 9,000 sq ft in 2012, and committed to the new 15-year lease for 95,628 sq ft of office space at 4 and 5 HX.
In the same month, it was also announced that Morgan Stanley had agreed to keep its 547,000 sq ft European headquarters in Canary Wharf for another 14 years. It agreed to extend the end of its lease from 2028 to 2038 at 20 Bank Street and would retain its space at nearby 25 Cabot Street.
In June 2023, HSBC announced that it would be leaving Canary Wharf when its lease expired at 8 Canada Square in 2027 and was negotiating a new lease on BT’s former headquarters, Panorama St Paul’s.
In July 2024, owners of the Canary Wharf Group (CWG) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) revealed plans for the redevelopment of the 8 Canada Square building, drawn up by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF).
The 1.1 million-square-foot building’s plans included best-in-class workspaces, leisure, entertainment, education, and cultural attractions.
In August 2025, HSBC announced it had reversed its plans to completely vacate Canary Wharf by signing a 15-year lease for 210,000 square feet at 40 Bank Street.
In December 2025, the Canary Wharf Group reported strong leasing momentum throughout the district, with more than 750,000 square feet of office transactions announced in the year, marking the group’s best office leasing year in more than a decade.
Several transactions were completed throughout the year, with large occupiers committing to Canary Wharf, including JPMorgan, Visa, and the University College London (UCL) School of Management.
In the last quarter of 2025, JPMorgan also announced its plans to build a 3-million-square-foot tower in Canary Wharf, which would be the largest office building in London.
The project would be subject to planning approval and a continued favourable business environment in the UK.
See our guide to searching for and opening an office in Canary Wharf here
Serviced Offices in Central London
Offices in Mayfair and the West End of London
When Londoners refer to the West End, they generally mean the area of central London located to the west of Charing Cross. The West End is one of the most expensive areas in the world to rent office space. Included in the West End are the distinctly up-market districts of Mayfair, St James’s, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden, Soho, Chelsea and Westminster. Mayfair, in particular, has always had exceedingly high rents and has some of the most successful hedge funds in the world based in the area, as well as many other high-profile occupiers, including family offices.
See our guide to opening up an office in Mayfair here
The Media and Technology sector continued to lead January 2018 take-up, accounting for 56 per cent of take-up, followed by the Serviced Office sector at 18 per cent – a notable deal being i2 Offices taking 21,000 square feet at 33 Cavendish Square, and the Insurance & Financial Services sector at 10 per cent.
See our guide to setting up an office in Covent Garden here
The prime headline rent in the West End was circa £120 per square foot per year, although £175 was achieved in a small deal recently.
In August 2024, it was announced that the 14 St George Street office block in Mayfair had been purchased by developer Oval Real Estate for £125.4m. The block had been placed on the market in June after its average occupancy fell to 81.7 per cent in the first half of the year.
You can see our guide on Searching for Office Space in Central London here
For further general information on corporate office space in London, managed offices in London and co-working space in London, click the links.
See our guide to flexible offices in London here
See our guide to opening an office in Euston here
See our London Street Address Guides here
There are over 275 flexible office and workspace providers in London.
These office providers, workspace operators, and landlords offer agile business space solutions, including private serviced offices, managed office suites, floors, and headquarters, as well as a range of coworking solutions.
The profile of all office providers, operators and landlords in London can be found in this directory
These alternatives to traditional leased offices can be found across all 32 boroughs of London, in submarkets such as the West End, the City, Midtown, Canary Wharf and Docklands, West London, and South London.
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