trends
Central London office take-up hits 3.08 million sq ft in Q3 as availability falls
Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 report shows grade A space taking 80% of Central London lettings, availability at 23.05 million sq ft and UK buyers accounting for 46% of office investment.
Central London office take-up reached 3.08 million sq ft in the third quarter of 2026, 24% above the five-year average, with grade A space accounting for 80% of lettings, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
The firm's Q3 2026 London Office Marketbeat report, published on 13 November, said availability fell 2% during the quarter to 23.05 million sq ft. That figure is 10% lower than a year earlier and 8% below the five-year average.
The report was written by Heena Gadhavi, partner and head of London offices research at Cushman & Wakefield.
Development pipeline
Cushman & Wakefield said 12.02 million sq ft of office space was under construction in Central London at the end of September, a rise of 3% over the quarter. Of that total, 25% was pre-let or under offer.
Investment
Investment in Central London offices totalled £6.13bn across the first three quarters of 2026, the firm said. That was 5% below the same period of 2025 and 8% below the five-year average for the first nine months of a year.
Core prime office yields were held at 5.50% in the City and moved to 4.00% in the West End during the quarter.
Where the money is coming from
The report set out a change in the mix of buyers. UK purchasers accounted for 31% of Central London office investment between 2016 and 2025, Cushman & Wakefield said, rising to 36% in 2025 and 46% in the first three quarters of 2026.
Asia Pacific capital went the other way, falling from 33% of investment over the longer-term period to 14% in 2025 and 9% in 2026. The firm attributed the fall to the absence of investment from Hong Kong, Singapore and China. Japanese capital was the largest contributor of Asian money in 2026 at 50%, and Asia Pacific investors have acquired close to £560m so far this year.
| Source of capital | 2016-25 | 2025 | Q1-Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | 31% | 36% | 46% |
| Asia Pacific | 33% | 14% | 9% |
| Rest of Europe | 15% | 21% | 24% |
Buyers from the rest of Europe represented 15% of purchases in 2016-25, 21% in 2025 and 24% in the first three quarters of 2026. North American investors accounted for 13% in 2026, which the firm said was broadly in line with the 12% recorded over the longer term.
Taken together, UK and European buyers represented 70% of Central London office investment in 2026, against 46% across 2016-25, according to the report.
Wider construction picture
Separately, the Office for National Statistics estimated that total construction output in Great Britain fell 0.7% in Quarter 3 2026 compared with Quarter 2, with new work down 1.6% and repair and maintenance up 0.5%.
The ONS said monthly construction output grew 0.8% in September 2026, following four consecutive monthly decreases.
Sources
- Cushman & Wakefield (opens in a new tab) (accessed 2026-11-13)
- Office for National Statistics (opens in a new tab) (accessed 2026-11-13)
This story was researched from the primary sources above and checked against them before publication. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it promptly.
