Savills Belgium | West End Office: Market Watch

West End letting activity up by 42%.

Supply and demand snapshot

■ The strong leasing activity which started this year has picked up, following last month’s slowdown, with take up in April at 287,320 sq ft up by 42% on March.

■ The largest transaction to complete in April, was the letting of 60,000 sq ft at 338 Euston Road, NW1 to Facebook. The social media giant secured the space on a five-year lease in the largest transaction this year.

■ The highest reported rent this month is £110 per sq ft, achieved at 1 Curzon Street, W1. PJT took 28,297 sq ft on the fifth floor on a 10-year lease.

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TABLE 1Key April stats

^{Source: Savills Research}

■ Supply has fallen by 7% from 4.1 million sq ft in March. Current Supply is 3.8 million sq ft, of which 77% is of a Grade A standard. This equates to a vacancy rate of 3.1%, the lowest since September 2007, highlighting the strain on supply in the West End.

■ So far, 1.1 million sq ft of new developments and refurbishments have entered the West End market in 2015. An additional 600,000 sq ft will be added to supply at the end of Q2.

■ Current demand at 2.6 million sq ft, is up by 8% on last month.

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GRAPH 1Take-up

^{Source: Savills Research}

■ The Insurance and Financial sector has accounted for 8% of all take-up up to April 2015, previously accounting for 18% at this point last year.

■ Transactions in April have been dominated by lettings of <10,000 sq ft, accounting for 82% of the deals this month. This is in line with all recorded deals to date, where 83% of lettings have been <10,000 sq ft.