London office take-up climbs as Crossrail arrival and new hotspots fuel demand
Demand for office space in Central London jumped in the third quarter of 2018, with take-up in the capital’s commercial property sector showing no sign of a slowdown in the run-up to Britain leaving the EU.
Office take-up in the three months to the end of September hit 3.7m square foot, marking a six per cent rise from the same period last year and the highest level of third-quarter growth since 2014.
The third quarter was also 18 per cent higher than the 10-year average.
“Despite all the talk of companies putting decision making on hold until after the Brexit conclusion, this is clearly not what we are seeing in the Central London office market,” according to Will Beardmore Gray, head of Central London at Knight Frank.
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According to Beardmore, a number of locations outside of Central London’s traditional core sites have seen an influx of demand from the likes of tech firms and international businesses in the wake of Crossrail’s expected arrival and a swathe of new office buildings.
Beardmore added: “One trend we are definitely seeing, and expect to continue, is an appetite to look outside of the traditional Central London core locations. King’s Cross, White City and Stratford are three markets that are flourishing as developers have used place making, well connected transport links and modern new office buildings to appeal to a new breed of occupiers.”
A number of landmark deals were signed in the third quarter of the year, with Facebook acquiring 600,000 square feet across three buildings in King’s Cross Central.
In July Publicis Media also took up more than 200,000 sq ft in the BBC’s refurbed HQ at White City in West London.