Take-up

Q3 2022 take-up totalled 98,000 sq ft across 32 completed lettings. This was the second highest number of completed Q3 transactions since 2013. At quarter end, total take-up so far in 2022 stands at 306,000 sq ft.

Grade A take-up of 39,000 sq ft accounted for 40% of total take-up in Q3 2022. This included the 30,000 sq ft letting to Evelyn Partners at 177 Bothwell Street which means that the new build Grade A development is now virtually fully occupied. Grade A take-up between Q1 and Q3 2022 was 124,000 sq ft which accounted for 41% of the take-up total.

Supply

Total supply stood at 1.5m sq ft at the end of Q3 2022. This represented a 7% decrease from Q2 2022. From a Grade A perspective, supply stood at 346,000 sq ft and new build Grade A availability fell by a further 27% to just over 100,000 sq ft at quarter end.

Total vacancy rate for the market decreased by 80 basis points in Q3 2022 to 10%. Equally, the Grade A vacancy rate decreased by 30 basis points standing at 3% at quarter end as a proportion of total market stock.

Take-up by business sector

The Insurance & Financial Services sector was the most active sector in Q3 2022 accounting for 34% of overall take-up. This was a particularly successful quarter for the sector which only recorded an annual take-up of 28,000 sq ft in 2021.

Elsewhere, the Professional sector was the second most active sector, achieving for 14% of the overall total. As at the end of Q3, the Professional sector has been the most active in 2022, recording 62,000 sq ft of take-up which has accounted for 20% of the overall total.

Rents

Prime rent remained unchanged at £35.25 per sq ft in Q3 2022. That being said, this comes off the back of 8% growth in 2021 alone and 15% growth since 2015. Furthermore, the lack of rental growth in Q3 comes as a result of rapidly falling levels of new build Grade A availability rather than a lack of demand for the highest quality space. As such, Savills expects the remaining 100,000 sq ft of new Build Grade A stock to be fully occupied by the end of 2022. Average Grade A rent stood at £26.17 at quarter end.

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View all of our latest Q3 2022 Occupational Office Data research here.