Central London office availability hits 14 year low

A recent report by global real estate services provider CBRE reveals that central London office availability has dropped to a 14 year low, falling by 3% in the first quarter of 2015.

The first three months of 2015 have also seen 3.1m square feet of office space go under contract, the strongest quarterly performance since 2007.

CBRE have commented that the combined effect of high demand and low availability is causing rents to rise significantly.

A total of 1.6m square feet of speculative office development is scheduled to come on the market during the course of 2015. However, it is expected that office rents will continue to climb sharply for a while, before levelling off.

Meanwhile, research by Savills has confirmed London as the most expensive city in the world for employees to live and work. The report, which counts the cost of accommodating a workforce in both residential and commercial premises, reveals an average live/work cost of £76,184 per employee. Hong Kong came second, followed by New York, Paris and San Francisco.

For further information, please contact Philip Mundy at