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.
It is encouraging to see such high levels of leasing activity in what is traditionally a quiet summer month.
http://news.cbre.co.uk/london-office-take-up-driven-by-pre-lets-in-july/
