The office space take-up in London was 26 per cent above the 10-monthly average in July 2017 accounting for 1.3 million sq.ft. This indicates that London continues to remain the top real estate market in the world despite several challenges just a year ago.

According to latest data released by global real estate adviser CBRE, pre-lets were largely responsible for the increased take-up. The largest transaction of the month was at 21 Moorfields, where 549,900 sq ft was pre-let off plan.

The banking and finance sector represented the largest proportion of take-up in July at 58 per cent followed by the consumer services & leisure (16 per cent) and creative industries sectors (12 per cent). Over the last 12 months, take-up has been dominated by the creative industries and the businesses services sector, both at 24 per cent of take-up.

A total of 2.7m sq ft of development and refurbishment space has completed so far in 2017. A further 3.8m sq ft is expected to complete before the end of the year, 63 per cent (2.4 m sq ft) of which is already committed.

The rate at which office space is being taken up reflects the confidence of businesses in London despite the UK exiting the European Union.