London office market recalibrates as large-lease activity slows
Corporate caution and shifting space needs drive a 40% drop in large office take-up, but landmark deals remain in play
Over the last six months, rising corporate borrowing costs and an uncertain economic outlook have impacted business confidence. During that time, the 12-month rolling take-up figur...
UK economy posts surprise gains in February
0.5% growth is the fastest in nearly a year as manufacturers accelerated production in anticipation of US tariffs
UK gross domestic product rose by 0.5% in February, well above analysts’ expectations of 0.1% growth, as all main sectors posted increases. The acceleration in growth comes after e...
City outperforms rival London office submarkets in post-pandemic demand recovery
But leasing activity remains below pre-pandemic levels
Demand for office space in London’s City office market has been stronger than in any other area of the capital since the beginning of the pandemic. Office take-up in the City over ...
How has the arrival of the Silvertown Tunnel affected local real estate markets?
London’s new £2 billion shortcut should spark a real estate revival in Greenwich and Newham
Infrastructure projects in London have traditionally profoundly affected local commercial real estate. In 1999, the opening of the Jubilee Line extension connecting Green Park to S...
Office vacancies in Docklands Core rise to the highest on record
Exodus of office tenants and weak leasing activity intensify demand losses
Vacancies in London’s Docklands Core submarket, which includes Canary Wharf, rose to record heights in the first quarter of 2025 as demand continued to weaken. Docklands Core has o...
Life sciences boom returns as laboratory leasing trebles
Demand soars in the Golden Triangle and strengthens in the North
Over the last year, the expanding UK life sciences sector has driven a strong recovery in laboratory space leasing. Rolling 12-month take-up grew to more than 1 million square feet...
Spotlight on Oxford offices: Six key trends
Vacancies start to fall as occupier demand rebounds
Vacancies peaked at 6.4% last year and have started to fall
London office lease expiries to surge in 2025-26, but will demand follow?
Over the next two years, 32 million square feet of leases expire, a 23% increase on 2023-24
An increase in leases expiring over the next two years could drive requirements for London office space as occupiers navigate weak development pipelines, tightening vacancies and e...
UK real estate rebounds, but sector and regional differences remain key
CoStar’s Patrick Scanlon discusses market cycle trends at the GRI UK & Europe Reunion event
There is a growing consensus that the bottom of the UK real estate market has passed. Average yields for the three traditional sectors started to tighten towards the end of last ye...
Spotlight on Bristol offices: Positive sentiment fuels 2025 leasing growth as vacancies reach high
Optimism increases on the back of a thinning development pipeline and improved demand.
Office vacancies in Bristol have been trending steadily upward since the beginning of 2020 and are now at almost 11%, the highest for more than 10 years and well above the pre-pand...
Store closures in Lewisham lead to record demand losses but location is key
Lewisham Shopping Centre full as town centre remains popular with retailers
A wave of store closures across the London Borough of Lewisham has driven net absorption, or the change in occupied stock, sharply negative in 2024. Demand losses last year totalle...
Spotlight on Cambridge offices: Vacancies rise to a 12-year high as supply outpaces demand
Largest deal since 2021 drives demand in the first quarter of 2025, but strong pipeline to keep vacancies elevated
Office vacancies in Cambridge have come under continued upward pressure as new schemes are delivered to the market.
RICS survey calls the bottom of the market as yields harden across all sectors
CoStar’s analysis indicates yields have peaked as sentiment improves
Over half of respondents in the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors UK Commercial Property Monitor believe that the UK real estate market has either reached the bottom ...
Spotlight on Cardiff offices: Strengthening demand drives leasing to five-year high
A surge in large leasing deals boosted take-up to nearly 600,000 square feet last year
A raft of large deals propelled Cardiff leasing activity to almost 600,000 square feet in 2024, the highest total since 2019, albeit still 30% below the pre-pandemic five-year aver...
Kent industrial investment hits all-time high
Large sales drive turnover to a record level in 2024
Industrial investment turnover rose to a record high of more than £500 million in 2024 as several large transactions were completed, reflecting the robust appetite for the sector.
Data doesn't lie – if you ask the right questions
CoStar’s Patrick Scanlon discusses all things real estate data on the podcast Real Insights
Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of Japanese tech investment firm SoftBank, famously said, “Those who rule data will rule the entire world”, a sentiment not lost on people intere...
Uncertainty for UK office take-up after budget hits business confidence
Surveys say outlook for business performance is weakening
Concerns over the tax implications of the government’s October budget and changes to employment legislation threaten to dampen UK office leasing volumes in the first half of 2025. ...
The big UK office round-up: How was 2024 for your market?
CoStar’s analysts assess how London and the key regional office markets have performed during another challenging year
Office vacancies across the country continued to climb in 2024 as another wave of new office completions arrived and aggregate demand losses accelerated, as measured by net absorpt...
Ten commercial property trends to watch in 2025
CoStar’s UK analysts look back at data insights from 2024 and give their view on whether they will continue in the year ahead
Although 2024 in many ways felt like a repeat of the previous year as the UK’s faltering economy and high interest rates continued to weigh on market activity, the past 12 months p...
Vacancies for new offices in the capital’s fringe markets are more than twice as high as in Central London
London office tenants focus on best-in-class space, and location is key
Office vacancies in buildings delivered in the last five years in Central London are less than half of those constructed during the same period in London’s fringe, defined as the s...