Take-up in central London offices was up 92% month-on-month in February 2017 to 1m sq ft

Freshfields pre-let 255,800 sq ft at 100 Bishopsgate was the month’s biggest deal

The latest data from CBRE also showed a rise of 18% on February 2016’s figures, as a total of 17 transactions of +10,000 sq ft were transacted during the month.

The largest transaction of the month saw Freshfields pre-let 255,800 sq ft at 100 Bishopsgate, one of three deals above 100,000 sq ft along with Arup’s pre-let of 133,600 sq ft at 80 Charlotte Street and Expedia’s acquisition of 124,200 sq ft at The Angel Building.

The professional services sector represented the largest proportion of take-up in February at 50% followed by the consumer services & leisure sector (19%).

80 Charlotte Street

Arup’s pre-let at 80 Charlotte Street further boosted February’s total

Availability in Central London rose by 22% year-on-year  to 14.7m sq ft, albeit despite the rise, availability remained in line with the 10-year average. The Central London vacancy rate rose to 4.5% from 4.2% which was above the 10-year average.

Emma Crawford, head of London leasing at CBRE, said:  “These three large deals are welcome news for the leasing market, although the 12-month rolling total remained just below the 10-year average.

“We expect take-up to remain steady rather than spectacular for the first half of the year. But we are encouraged by last week’s upgrade to economic forecasts for the UK suggesting growth of 2.0% in 2017.

“In such circumstances take-up in 2017 might be at least as strong as last year’s total.”