Office space in London on the rise despite Brexit

One subsector within the wider construction industry, which has seemed impervious to the last few years of political uncertainty as well as the impending Brexit developments, is the office space construction subsector, particularly within the City of London.

According to a recent survey that was conducted by the real estate advisor Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the amount of office space in London which was taken up over the course of last year measured at a total area of 11.6Msq ft whereas through 2018 the amount of office space taken up in London measured at 11.5Msq ft, and office rents are only set to rise during 2020.

Adding to this evidence, provided by JLL, another survey that was conducted by the consultancy company Cushman and Wakefield revealed that the availability of office space in London currently stands at 13Msq ft which, in turn, equates to a proportion of 4.8 per cent, a proportion that is significantly lower than the ten-year average of six per cent.

Furthermore, just the to hammer home this point, Glenigan Construction Data has also recently revealed the value of office projects starting on site in London had increased by a proportion of 47 per cent over the course of the three months building up to December 2019, when compared with the same period in 2018. This meant that the total value of office projects in London leapt to a figure of £539M.

Some of the most significant office projects that are currently underway in London include the construction of the £600M Elizabeth House building near Waterloo Station, where construction is scheduled to begin this Summer on 146,170sq m of office space and will continue for 62 months.

Construction is likewise set to begin this Autumn on the £69.4M London Wall Buildings Extension which is set to take a period of just nine months in comparison the five years that Elizabeth House is set to take.

One of the largest property development companies in London, Land Securities (Landsec), has reported very favourable conditions for office construction on account of the high quality of office space and the modest construction statistics that are currently being published. Currently, Landsec possesses 1Msq ft of office space in London and have a project pipeline that boasts a further 3.5Msq ft on top of that.

If you would like to read more articles like this then please click here.