Cushman & Wakefield’s Central London Marketbeat provides an overview of the occupational and investment markets across Central London on a quarterly basis. It summarises the property market fundamentals, such as take-up, supply and rents in the main markets – City, West End and East London.
The Central London office market, once again, has defied expectations and seemingly shrugged off Brexit-related uncertainty. Take-up for Q3 reached nearly 3.5 million sq ft, bringing the year-to-date total to 9.2 million sq ft, 9% ahead of the five-year average.
The strong leasing activity caused the volume of space under offer to fall, although it was still 10% ahead of the five-year average at the end of September.
Supply fell for the fifth consecutive quarter to 12.5 million sq ft, the lowest level since the end of 2016. The development pipeline remains particularly tight, and there is little evidence of space returning to the market through tenant distress.
Investor demand for Central London offices remained strong, with an additional £5.7 billion transacted between July and September. This brought the YTD volumes to £14.4 billion, on par with the same point in 2017 but 7% ahead of the five-year Q1-Q3 average.
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