Office take-up in central London reached 1.6m sq ft in September, bringing the year-to-date total to 10.4m sq ft, 15% up on the same period last year, according to DTZ’s latest Central Offices update.


In the year-to-date take-up of office space is 10.4m sq ft, 15% up on the same period in 2013. Docklands has seen the largest rise in update over the past nine months, with 860,000 sq ft transacted compared to 460,000 sq ft in the same period last year. The deals have led to the availability of Grade B Central London Office space hitting a 13 year low.


Four large transactionstook place in the month of September. The largest lettings saw Amazon pre-let 431,000 sq ft at Principal Place, EC2, and 86,000 sq ft at 1 Leadenhall Street, EC3, which they will occupy until Principal Place completes in the first quarter of 2017. The Parliamentary Standards Authority took 91,000 sq ft at 39 Victoria Street, SW1, and Jupiter Asset Management took 56,000 sq ft at the Zig Zag building, SW1.


Four out of six central London markets saw month-on-month falls in availability. The biggest decreases were in the City (-7%) and West End (-5%). The Shard remained the largest unit available in central London (with 375,000 sq ft available). Other large units contributing to availability figures included The Aldgate Tower, E1 (317,000 sq ft) and Moorgate Exchange, EC2 (200,000 sq ft).


The amount of floor space under offer increased by 13% in September, to 3.2m sq ft. This is 19% up on the five year average of 2.7m sq ft (Figure 3). There are seven 50,000 sq ft plus units under offer at present. These include 160 Aldersgate Street, EC1 where DLA Piper are negotiating on 202,000 sq ft and Cannon Place, EC4 where Threadneedle are under offer on 65,000 sq ft.


A number of requirements were satisfied in September; as such there was 7.8m sq ft of active demand in the market, 15% down on the 9.2m sq ft recorded in August.


Richard Howard, head of central London agency at DTZ, said: “Central London take-up reached 1.6m sq ft last month, brining the year-to-date total to 10.4m sq ft. This is 15% up on the same period last year. Availability has decreased month-on-month throughout 2014, standing at 10.3m sq ft in September, 4% lower than the previous month. There was 3.2m sq ft under offer last month, 1.9% up on the five year monthly average of 2.7m sq ft. As such we expect take-up to remain above average during Q4.”