London office rents make record recovery since the crash
The City office market is in record health, according to research from Knight Frank that shows rents have made a speedier recovery since the 2007 crisis than following previous financial downturns.
In its latest report, the upmarket estate agent has tracked how rents in the Square Mile have fared since their pre-crisis peak in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with the start of previous downturns at the end of 1989 and 2001.
It found that rents bottomed out within two years of the initial crash of 2007 and have been rising steadily for five years. That compares with the previous crashes of 1989 and 1991 which took three and four years respectively to recover and even then they were short lived.
The 2001 market cycle lasted just six years, with the arrival of the global financial crisis in late 2007. However, the current cycle has lasted over seven years and rents still growing.
Knight Frank partner Bradley Baker said: “These figures demonstrate that the City office market has proved far more resilient in recent years than anyone would have imagined back in 2007 when the financial crisis began."
"One of the keys to the City’s success has been its’ significant diversification away from an over-dependence on the financial sector in the past and instead embracing and attracting technology and media firms such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Amazon, Hachette and Uber.”