TMT firms lap up City space

Technology firms have become the largest buyers of new City floor space, Knight Frank data will show today.

The figures the property services company will publish today show that technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) groups leased 931,000 sq ft of office space in the Square Mile during the first nine months of 2012, up 40% over the same period last year. This year’s figure for TMT groups compares with 62,000 sq ft for banks. Rents in the City have risen from £42.50 a sq ft to about £55 a sq ft since the middle of 2009, compared with from £45 a sq ft to £65 a sq ft in Covent Garden, in the West End of London, and from £65 a sq ft to £95 a sq ft in Mayfair. A study by BNP Paribas Real estate shows TMT companies are on course to absorb an extra 1.2m sq ft by 2014.