Landsec West End offices 'are full' as demand soars

PROPERTY giant Land Securities today declared its West End offices are “full” as the latest industry data for London showed that businesses are in talks to let even more space — enough to fill six Gherkin towers.

- Joanna Hodgson , Michael Hunter

Landsec said today that its overall central London occupancy rate hit 96.5%. And the West End fared even better — with 99.6% of it let — meaning that the capital’s cultural heartland was “effectively full”, at least as far as the FTSE 100 group’s portfolio was concerned.

Mark Allen, CEO of the owner of the Lucent office development behind the Piccadilly Lights advertising site, became the latest big name in the industry to point to the trend driving demand since Covid: “Customers concentrating on best-in-class space.”

He added: “In London, our well located, sustainable offices in vibrant, amenity-rich areas continue to see growing occupancy, growing utilisation, growing customer space requirements and hence growing rents.”